being grateful for not having children

while this is a thought that i may have fairly often, for many different reasons, i was incredibly happy to have a virtually zero responsibility life on saturday. it was will's birthday, and i think things went swimmingly. i had a great day, and it seemed very will-oriented. to recap:

part 1
jp and i wake up a touch early to go to eatnpark for breakfast with will and shan. we give will his birthday presents (a specially designed razor for your head and some crazy mentholated head shaving cream)(no, really, will really likes shaving products. it's a much cooler gift than you think!). eat breakfast. the boys leave to go to their respective homes and shan and i proceed to kmart for some of the last things needed for christmas. i find exactly what i needed - which was in the vague category of 'something for my father-in-law' - and it's perfect! yay. i also buy the cats presents because i've started feeling guilty that i didn't get them anything ever since shannon told me they bought them christmas presents. and connor gets a present too. we go to check out and end up trapped because all sorts of people are blocking the aisles. one woman could back up about a foot and we could then get through. we look at her and she says (in the happy spirit of the holidays), "i don't know how you thought you were going to get through here." and goes back to looking at jewelry. wtf? how can you possibly be such an asshole? shannon and i just sat there stunned for a moment, before politely asking someone not her to move. that woman did so immediately and apologetically. what a difference it makes if you're NOT A BIG JERK. we leave kmart without much more fanfare.

part 2
will loves pool. our plan was to take him somewhere to shoot pool. however, we wanted to go to shootz (in the south side) and it costs $12.75/hour to shoot there after 5. so we went at 3. i get dropped off in the south side works, buy the absolutely last present i need, and go meet them. yay pool! except they have full size tables, which means i suck. such is life. so we munch on appetizers and drink drinks and play pool. brian and jp join us, so now it's will, shan, steph (will's newly 21 younger sister), brian, jp, and me. we stop playing pool and eat dinner. exit shootz, go to logan's.

part 3
ahhh, logan's. darts, bar size pool table, and i know 90% of the people who work there. except we show up and there is no one i know. some guy tries to convince will to play pool for money, which he refuses to do, especially since he just paid for the game for the two of them. later on, the same guy tries to have jp play chess with him, and even later than that, he's forcibly ejected from the bar because he's a big jackass.
so we hang out, drink, are joined by more people, drink more, hang out more. all in all a good time.

part 4
we decide to leave logan's to go play apples2apples at will and shan's. but brian has unfortunately taken it out of his car, so we have to go pick it up from my apartment. on our way to will and shan's, leeann needs cigarettes, so we stop at cogo's. i decide that will needs a cake. so i buy the closest thing to a cake that they have - suzy Q's. we interact with the creepy checkout guy and leave. when we get to will and shan's, there are no birthday candles. however, there are lighters! so i stick my lighter in a suzy-Q, hold it lit, and make him blow it out while singing 'happy birthday' (the rights of which are owned by the Linguistic Society of America). we play apples2apples and giggle a lot. brian drives me home (thank you!) and i collapse into sleep almost immediately.

yay for long, fun days.