The Big 3-Oh!

I entered the 4th decade of my life this last Friday.  Usually for my birthday, I just do something small like a get together in Tucson for one night.  Over the last few years ever since I started "Making It Happen", I have been traveling and going out of my way to visit people, attend their weddings and celebrations, etc.  While it doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary, I began to realize how much I actually spend indirectly on other people.  For example, I just spent $2,000 on a plane ticket and Visa to go to my friend James' wedding in Brazil in October.  So I started thinking, why not spend more on myself?  For my 30th birthday, I decided I go full out and really treat myself.  So I booked 5 rooms at the Hyatt and planned this amazing weekend in Scottsdale where I would do basically everything that I wanted to do for a change.  I was pleased with the results and how everything turned out!

My birthday was on Friday August 16th and Ann drove me up to the Phoenix area at noon, arriving in Tempe where I had a sushi lunch at Teharu.  My friend Lucky, Dori, and Mike from Seattle joined me in taking down a few plates of sushi and I enjoyed a sake bomb.  Barry showed up shortly after.

The plan was to have lunch at 2pm, and afterwards I picked up a bottle of Goose, Jameson, Patron, and 2 30 packs of beer and headed to the Scottsdale Hyatt at Gainey Ranch.  I checked into the resort around 4pm and was greeted by a note from Nate and Elizabeth (and Casey) wishing me a happy birthday.  I put on my swim trunks, filled a small cooler of beer, and Jeff, Jennie, Ben, and Ham joined the party where we all enjoyed some pool volleyball for a couple hours.  When I got back to the room, the resort had left a bottle of champagne in my room as well as a plate of chocolates for my birthday!  I also asked them to put a cot in each room for more comfortable sleeping arrangements for everyone and they did it on the house.  The Hyatt really took care of me this weekend, but I guess when you drop a G on 5 rooms they are gonna give you a little special treatment. :)

 

Dinner was at the Village Tavern that night, so we all got dressed up to go eat and then head out to Old town afterwards.  Chris, Anthony, Nate, Elizabeth, Cooper, Wes, Ryan, and Jessica all joined me at dinner, so there were about 15 people there.  I ordered the 16oz prime rib with a bottle of red wine that Jennie and I split, but the steak was so filling I couldn't finish my sides of mashed potatoes and mac 'n cheese. :( Thanks Wes for buying my dinner!

From dinner we all headed straight to Old Town Scottsdale.  I started off at Dos Gringos since it's a large venue with plenty of room for everyone.  But in actuality, it was really hot at that bar and since there were only 15 in my party, I decided to move to Gilligan's.  Dori, Teqas, Kurth, Josh, Tina, and Tyler would all join me at Gilligans', where I proceeded to drink to my heart's content (someone always made sure there was a drink in my hand).  I spun the wheel but ended up with a Blue Waffle (it's just pure food coloring, no alcohol) so I threw that out right away.  Instead, Wes decided to get me a plunger shot of Buttery Nipple with green food coloring. :/ I knew what it would do to my mouth if I drank that shit, so I forced both Wes and Ann to do it first.  After they did, I was like okay, I'll go ahead and take the rest. :P

My goal for the weekend was to have 30 drinks across the two days, and I think I crushed about 20 in the first day alone.  I lost track of count, but I was feeling pretty good by the end of the night.  I couldn't get super-hammered since I knew I had a long day ahead on Saturday as well, but I was pretty drunk to say the least.

On Saturday, I started off with a lunch buffet at the Wandering Horse inside the Talking Stick casino.  I invited my parents to lunch, who met many of my friends for the first time.  Lunch was pretty pleasant as additional attendants such as Brian, Kelly, Amber, Ryan, Lucky, Jen, Jon, and another Anthony joined the party train.  The plan was to gamble for a couple hours afterwards, but only Anthony, Barry, and I hit the blackjack table.  For my birthday, I bought in for $500 and really let my gambling go loose, playing two hands at a time at $25 a hand.  Blackjack has it's ups and downs and I ended up $350 down by the end, but it was still very entertaining (Anthony ended up winning about $400 and Barry $100 so collectively the group did well!).

After gambling, I headed back to the Hyatt for more pool time, this time playing a couple games of 3-on-3 and 2-on-2 pool basketball.  I really scraped up the bottom of my toes pushing off the pool deck, but it was worth it how fun real pool basketball is. :D I also was an idiot and tried to do a backflip in the water, but forgot that the pool I was in at the time was only 3 feet deep.  As a result, I have a huge scrape on my forehead.  Hopefully it doesn't leave a scar!  Everyone called me "Asian Harry Potter" the rest of the weekend, haha.  At the pool, I got to see Matt, Pamela, their son Ryan, Jonny, and Jody for a brief period as well.

The night would end at Jeff's house, were I bought 9 pizzas from Barro's to feed everyone.  More people showed up throughout the night and it was a pretty chill night of beer pong, pool, and hookah.  Ann baked me a StarCraft with a tiny Duncan decoration on top that we all enjoyed.  Thanks Ann!  And at the end of the night, Lucky and Jeff sprayed me with a couple bottles of champagne and I pretended that I was LeBron James winning the NBA championship. :P

Everyone ducked out of the party by like 1am, but the after party continued at the Hyatt where their pools never close.  I finally passed out around 3am.

The only thing left on the list was Senor Taco for lunch on Sunday before we headed back to Tucson.  It was about a 20-minute detour, but I think it was well worth it as everyone seemed to enjoy what they got.  I mean, how can you not?  It's Senor Taco! :) The weekend was concluded and overall it was mission accomplished!  Even though several people didn't show and a few key people were missing, I did myself right by really going full out for my 30th birthday.

People ask how it feels to be 30 and to be honest, I feel accomplished.  I feel like I have gotten my life to the stage I want it at and to do that by the age of 30 is an achievement.  People ask me what my goals are for this decade are or what I want to do next, but when you get to this age and realize how good a life you have, there's not really much left to ask for!  Anyway, it was a amazing celebration and I'm very proud of the person I've become after 30 years!  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and for helping Make It Happen!