XXX - plus one

Well, the big day has come and gone, and I am still intact, none the worse for wear as a result of it. It was a fairly low-key affair, mostly because the big party will be this Saturday at my oversized Hollywood Hills apartment.

The day started off well enough, when I found that my dear friend Beth at work had stopped off for a McDonald's breakfast for yours truly. Very sweet sentiment that made me feel as though I probably ought to have done more for her birthday last week.

My office-mate Mark had brought in a small cake for an elite circle of cake-eaters in my building. That cake will be consumed today, due to the fact that everyone on the show had a gathering for some fantastic chocolate-on-chocolate action. No, this isn't a reference to a subgenre of adult film, but in fact, this was a fantastic cake, so good, but I could only consume so much cake in one day. Those of you who know me (who else would be reading this???) might find that hard to believe, but, it's true.

It was partially complicated by the fact that two of the writers on the show took myself and my two office-mate pals over to the nice part of the commissary where they take your order and actually bring your food to you. I was bullied into getting an apple turnover with two scoops of ice cream... so, that really didn't help my prospect of having two pieces of cake today. That was a great show-business lunch filled with talk from people who are actually in the thick of things, and the rest of us on the precipice. Not even sure I just used "precipice" correctly -- but it's staying in there.

There were a lot of telephonic and electronic well-wishes in the form of e-cards and an avalance of MySpace comments -- which makes me think that they must tell you when one of your friends has a birthday coming up. It was an all-star line-up of friends from the recent and not-so-recent past turning up to say hello in various ways, which is always appreciated and more than a little fun.

The work day in and of itself was alright, but, invariably when I have specific plans to leave before 7pm, it never quite works out that way, and I end up getting out at 7:30 -- AND coming back to work much later on because of a problem with a file I had sent to myself.

But, the actual birthday-ing was great fun. Heather took me to the Benihana near the Beverly Center, which was delicious of course, and I even spotted none other than Keifer Sutherland and Kanye West dining there -- seperately of course. I didn't feel as though our borders were adequately protected from terrorism if Jack Bauer is able to sit down and order some teriyaki steak and diced shrimp, but he was on his cell phone a lot, so, I'll assume that Chloe was keeping him appraised of the situation.

We followed it up with a few drinks in Hollywood -- which for those of you that don't live out here, whatever you think that means, forget it, it's more like heading out in Alphabet City -- with THE ROOMMATE and THE HAZE. Then, there were the presents back at Heather's, which included a framed "Song of the South" poster, a jacket I am currently wearing and the Godfather Collection on DVD. Throw into the mix the IPOD that I got from my brother and father, it was definitely a fortuitous assortment of material items bestowed upon yours truly.

Having to come back to work at 1:30 SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED, but, it was painless and easily taken care of, and there's all sorts of over-time associated with that. I've always liked being at work on my birthday, becuase I feel as though I get a lot more attention than if I were to take the day off. It just got a little hectic towards the end of the work-day, but, a good lunch, cake, thoughtful breakfast and the prospect of more cake to follow definitely made the day itself great.

OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THIRTY THUS FAR: Fantastic. Food, folks, fun, and free shit galore. No complaints.