you say it's your birthday?

these are things i have done since i turned 25, one year ago today. they're more or less in chronological order, with the help of my brand new treo 650.

i flew to new zealand on my birthday last year. i took lots of photos and had an excellent time running around with my uncle and nate and emma.

in december, i bought a car. it's a 1984 honda prelude with a crapload of miles on it. and it still works today. it's a good little car.

i spent christmas in boulder with my dad and stepmom and sister. we had christmas dinner at our friends the hurd's. a good time was had by all.

new year's was celebrated at the w hotel in downtown seattle with a bunch of my new friends and my girlfriend at the time. more photos were taken. it was quite excellent.

i got to meet all sorts of awesome people through work. i could tell you about that, but then i'd have to kill you.

i helped put together the plan for laying out our new building at work. it's going to be a great place to work.

i saw my former professor david grinspoon give a lecture here in seattle about life on titan. then i took him out for drinks.

i saw flogging molly in concert in february, and met my new friend ben. he's an odd duck. he wore a kilt to the show, which was an excellent choice.

i helped build something really cool that our company put together. then i watched it do something awesome.

i took a road trip to portland in february with my friends kevin and margaret, where we partied until the wee hours with our portland friends chris and jill.

my friend meridee moved out here with her boyfriend michael.

i got to introduce several of my friends to the excellent movie the american astronaut at a screening/concert in march. kevin was so impressed that he bought one of everything at the merch booth.

i saw a kid i knew from high school play drums for the band beep beep in an opening set for fellow omaha band the faint. i got a kick out of saying hi to him at the merch booth and talking about high school.

i started a book club with my now-roommate jana. it's called the maple street gang, after the omaha gang of the same name that appeared on some mid-90's mtv special on "gangs in the heartland" or some such thing.

my sister came to visit in march. we wandered around seattle a bit and had breakfast with the mom of her old friend gemma.

i spent my first conference on world affairs week as an audience member instead of an organizer. it was very different. okay, well, i wasn't an entirely passive audience member; i helped out quite a bit during the week. i took a bunch of photos and had an awesome time, not least because of lindsey. alas, my time with lindsey came to an end far sooner than i had hoped, but such is life. i also got snowed in on my way back home and had to buy a plane ticket to spokane and drive from there to avoid waiting an extra 2 days for the queue of snowed-in people trying to get back to seattle to dissipate.

i bought a house. that was pretty cool.

then i spent a bunch of time painting it. and painting it. and having my friend gwyn help me paint it.

my friend gwyn moved here, and had the dubious honor of being my roommate for a while. then our friend savannah moved here as well. i'm glad they moved out here; they're both pretty awesome people.

my friend juniper interned at my company over the summer. good times were had by all. especially when we took some of the other interns out to a gay club in vancouver. and especially when we got to fly on the zero-g airplane.

i attended the bachelorette party of my friend alicia, who i used to date sometimes back in boulder. that was pretty wild.

i removed, had serviced, and replaced the head on my 1954 chevy pickup. i still haven't finished putting everything back together.

i spent a weekend in portland with my dad. we went to a huge beer festival and hung out with my friend katie.

my other friend katie moved to seattle after joining the coast guard.

i flew to santa rosa in august to get my uncle's piano and a 1954 chevy panel truck, then drove them back to seattle with my dad in a big u-haul.

i spent an unbelievably awesome extended weekend with molly in august. we then spent a good couple of months figuring out just what that meant, but unfortunately what i had hoped would happen just didn't. so it goes. (there's a whole heck of a lot more i could write about that, but i'm not going to write it here, and if you're reading this and you know me very well, you've probably heard it already.)

i saw sigur ros in concert. holy shit that was incredible. easily in the top 5 concerts i've ever seen. i nearly wet myself.

i attended the excellent bumbershoot music & art festival in september. i got to see the decemberists, sarah vowell, mike doughty, death cab for cutie, devotchka, iggy & the stooges, elvis costello, and a whole crapload of other shows, plus i got to hang out with gwyn and jana and my friend keelie from colorado.

i finally watched two of the movies in the cremaster series, by matthew barney (who, among many other things, has the distinction of being married to bjork). i'm still trying to figure out just what the crap they were about.

i went to the ikea store for the first time. that place scares me.

and then this weekend, about 11 of my friends came out to dinner to celebrate my birthday and get me drunk. and drunk i got. phwew.

and now with all of 12 minutes left in my birthday, i'm off to bed.