Birthdays seem to have multiple celebrations in my family, so they’re more like birthweeks.

Today Erin threw a surprise party for Josh and a group of us played pool at a cool-people bar, where the prime selection of women and men appear to be manifestations of an MTV reality show cast. It’s always better for me to leave these types of bars before coming down from a beer buzz. Otherwise a part of me buys into the illusion that I don’t belong on this planet.

What I found particularly interesting is how the server girl came to our table multiple times through the night, and would ask everybody individually if they needed anything, skipping me each time; no eye contact, not even a glance. I traded seats with somebody, same result. I thought maybe it could be that she liked me or something, but then I remembered that male/female interactions don’t really work that way after elementary school.

Tony’s best friend.

Today was Tony’s birthday, so I decided to meet up with him and take him out for a beer.  I didn’t have much time, so I limited my party time to an hour. We walked into the bar and sat down to get some beers before more friends arrived.

Anyway, I didn’t have my camera today. The drawn photograph above is, to the best of my memory, a picture I created of a guy who decided to chat it up with Tony at the bar, immediately after we arrived, for a good 30 minutes.

He made it obvious that he dreaded being introduced to new people. He talked without any inclusion of others’ interests. He was relentless. Oblivious to social cues to leave, and everything. The peak conversation moments were about:

• World of Warcraft rankings
• Dudes he thinks make out with dudes
• Beating up people
• Wishing to beat up other people
• Football

During that time, I had two beers, and sat in complete silence listening to declined western intellect in all of its glory.  Then I looked at the clock, and it was about time to go. People started to show up, so I decided to wait around until the social atmosphere picked up enough for me to feel like I got something done tonight. $25 in beers later, and no substantial conversation, I went home to go to bed for work.