Birthdays Are Awesome

Yea, I know - it's been awhile. My apt back home doesn't have internet and I'd get shot if I try to do this at work so you take what you can get, damnit. Get off me.

I'm just kidding, please keep reading.

So my birthday was pretty rockin'. We'll start from the beginning:
The flight home was a little rough but in a good way. When I got to the airport in Mumbai, I was really excited to start celebrating. Technically, at that time, it was already my birthday here so I wanted to party hard. I couldn't get through security fast enough. Which point #1, I'm NEVER leaving here on a Friday ever again. Eff that. Too many damn people. Everywhere. Anyway, while I was in line, a little kid was on my ASS the entire time. Her AND her mama. I'm like, "Back back, back back - give me 50 feet". They wouldn't get off me - straight trippin - so I started swaying back and forth so that if they didn't get off me, they'd get hit by my backpack. Worked for awhile... until the little girl got too close and I knocked her down. I'm just saying - not my fault. Get off me.
Finally got through and hit up the Lufthansa Lounge where I sat on Facebook for 3 hours and drank wine. Partly because the beer here sucks, partly because I wanted to go to sleep on the first leg so I didn't have to the second. Mission accomplished.
Got to the Frankfurt lounge got myself cleaned up. I learned from my first trip that if I didn't pack a shirt in my carry on, I'd smell like feet and onion the whole flight back to the US. Once I got on the plane, though... all hell broke lose. Hey... it's my birthday. Started automatically with the predeparture champagne, and then Jack and Seven after that.... all 11 hours on the way home. Until they ran out and then rum and coke. Yes, I went a little overboard. But it's my 30th birthday and I was alone. Don't judge me. It got so bad that once they brought around the duty free catalog, I went crazy and bought a carton of cigarettes and some cologne I've never even heard of - JUST because I didn't want to be "that guy" and buy just a carton of cigarettes.
Had a grand ol' time that day - dinner with B, and then we went to see a Mustang America reunion show where my man, Travis, asked his wonderful girlfriend, Amanda, to be his lobster. Real sweet.
And real hammered. If you didn't get the picture of me on the way home, I'm sure you can ask the guy next to you because apparently, Bryan sent it to everyone and their mama.

The next weekend was our joined birthday party - Bryan, Troy and I had loads of fun! So many people!!! Great to see some folks I hadn't seen in awhile and a lot of fun hanging with everyone at Mac's. And let's just paybacks a bitch because I DO have Bryan's picture of his ride home. Just saying.

The next week was work. And lots of it. Didn't do much but hang with cool people and have fun while I could.

Yesterday, the team here went for a day trip to Elephanta Island - or we tried to, anyway. We left the hotel in a driver from the hotel that was going to spend the entire day with us, wherever we wanted to go. All we had to do was tell him.... but apparently we had to tell him in Hindi because this fool did NOT speak English that well. And really didn't have that good of a sense of direction either. I mean, I don't know, but as a driver who is driving around 4 Americans, that MAY should be a requirement. We got to the port where they told us that because of the "cyclone", they weren't running boats to the island. Cyclone? Really? What, are we in Kansas? So we decide to walk around the Gateway of India anyway and noticed some folks by the port. And after the people up front say, "it's too dangerous to go", this fool down by the port was like, "y'all niggas want a ride" because he was OBVIOUSLY running his boat. And we got on.
Yea. Smart ones.
Now, it is not to say I don't have a sense of adventure - I think I do. But when they aren't running boats up front and this dude is just taking money and putting you on a boat, I may get a little weary - call me stupid. We get on and go up top to the deck where the water is so choppy, I everyone of us almost fell 9 times getting from one end to the other. We sit for awhile and the "captain", who coincidentally is wearing a scarf on his head - looked like a dark ass pirate - comes up and we take off. I'd like to point out that if this had been America, we'd have had 4 people make announcements and signs EVERYWHERE about how not to stand too close to the edge, to hold on to the railings while walking, and blah blah blah. But nope. Not here. Here, they were like, "y'all niggas ready to go"? And we took off. Pretty cool trip - started raining and felt awesome. Went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and had a burger. It so happened to be Mexican Fiesta celebration. Go figure with me and Stephen there. Ha.

I have 3 weeks left here on my "last" trip. I say "last" because I will be coming back, I just don't know when. But this is my last scheduled trip anyway. I'm going to make the most of it and try not to lose my mind waiting to get home. It's been a pretty trying week at work. So bad that last night, I decided that when I got home, I'm going to quit my job and open a bar. I've been wanting to do that forever so may as well start now, right?!
We also know that I'm a pathological liar so we'll see how far this goes. It'd be effing nice, though. Kind of a dream job.... We'll see.

Until next time...