My little brother turned 27 years old last Thursday, and my cousins—good, big-hearted people—threw him a surprise drinking bash last night. I had a card and birthday present for him, so I agreed to go for one drink and then head home.

See, they couldn't get the party started until 8:00 PM. Guys, I'm usually in bed by 9:00! Not only that, Nick was already scheduled to kayak the Kick¹ today, while I had plans to go into work for half of a day and then spend the other half BSing my way through a 1500 word essay on marketing research tools.

Nonetheless, we walked in, and Uncle Rick—Uncle Rick of parallel bathtub Euchre fame who knows how much I value flattery and told me last night I look younger every time he sees me—set a pitcher of free beer before me and Nick. By the time they whipped out the glow sticks and mardi gras beads, I was primed.



In conclusion, it was so nice to see my brother tickled that people would come out to celebrate him, and we were in bed by midnight: you can never hold your resolve once you have a little buzz and the small voice of what you really want to do, responsibility be damned, speaks over all others!

¹ I am pretty sure that "Kayaking the Kick" is just a Laura/Nick phrase indicating a day that typically starts at about 5:00 AM to travel to the Kickapoo river, and then spend six hours kayaking downstream before heading back home. It's one of my favorite things in the world to do, but I'm just too bogged down between work and school right now.