So, I never told you about Joe's birthday!

*hangs head in shame*

Joe's birthday was January 30th. Unfortunately, he had to work, and there was a snowstorm. But in spite of that, he turned 24, and I think he had a good day. So yay! ;)

Oh, one of the coolest things (to me) about his birthday. In the morning he came over for breakfast and was feeling a little down about school -- didn't have the book yet so he couldn't do his work, was afraid he was going to be behind in his class, just a little anxious about it I guess. So as I drove out toward work, waving goodbye and wishing him a happy birthday, I said a little extra prayer for him. A few hours later he hopped on AIM after class, and the first thing he said was "God is so good!" It was great seeing him all smiley after being a little on the apprehensive side in the morning (in spite of the fact that since it's AIM I obviously couldn't actually SEE him, but you know what I mean!). I guess it's just neat to be reminded sometimes that Somebody is out there taking care of the ones you love when you can't be right there with them. :)

I was going to stop by while he was at work that night and give him his birthday presents, but just as I was getting all my stuff on my silly goose called and ordered me not to come down due to the weather. ;) He knows me too well I guess! But it was his birthday so I had to do whatever the birthday boy said! Hehe. He did stop in afterwards for a little while to open his presents, and that was very cool. Although he was a tired thing. :/ He's been tired non-stop for the past 3 weeks and unfortunately there really isn't much I can do about that. :( Poor Joe!

Strangely enough, with all the things that happened on Friday (his actual birthday) he didn't REALLY turn 24 until after he was home and in bed... because he was born at 11:52pm on January 30th. :)

So that was Friday... all the other stuff I had planned was for Saturday, because on Saturday he at least has the evenings off. Even so, he had to get up at the crack of dawn to work at 7. :/ I was up early too, cleaning the apartment. There was a small fiasco where the cat spilled 2 pounds of kitten chow all over my nice clean kitchen (which I had JUST finished sweeping), but that's a cat for ya. ;)

Joe got home from work around 2 or so. People weren't due to show up at my house until 4. It was sort of a botched surprise party, because he knew SOMETHING was going on, but not EXACTLY what, although he was PRETTY sure, and he knew people were coming, but not who, etc. Mike was going to pick him up and distract him for a couple of hours and bring him over to my place. In retrospect, I probably should have stuck with my original plan, which was to have Joe come over after work, do... who knows what for an hour or so, and then act really surprised when people started arriving. ;) Hehe. But it was cool of Mike to offer to take him out for a bit, and I hope they had fun. :)

I asked everybody to come around 4, which means everybody started arriving around five after, but it was cool. We tried to yell surprise when Joe and Mike came. But I don't think Joe cared, he was just happy to see everybody! :) We had a good crowd: Jon, Locke, Rooney and Mara, Sean and Emily brought baby Kate, plus me, Mike, and Joe, and Randall and Pam came a little bit later. We had some pizza and everybody talked and it was great. :) And then we had chocolate pound cake (direct from Cazenovia!), with 24 candles on it of course!

It was really cool having the whole group together for an evening. It's been a long time since we did that; actually I think the last time I saw that particular group, in its entirety, was Sean's wedding. So I was REALLY glad everybody was able to come! (I was also really glad I happened to have all of their phone numbers! That way I could invite everybody without Joe knowing. :D God definitely is cool.)

So THEN of course was the hockey game. :D Which was supposed to be a surprise. But he knew about it. He guessed early in the week, when we were checking the score one night, and he was complaining about how much they suck, and then I guess a lightbulb went on in his head or something, and he goes "Oh geez, I hope you're not taking me to a hockey game!" And I tried to pretend like I wasn't, and I had no idea if there was a game on Saturday, etc. Miserable failure. ;) As soon as he found out there WAS a home game that weekend, he knew. (So I guess really my first mistake was telling him that I had something planned for Saturday. :P) It was kinda funny trying to keep him in suspense the whole week. ;) But... ah well. ;) Just because he knew about it didn't make it less fun!

We got to the game and picked up the tickets at Will Call (which was a new experience for me, hehe) and met everybody at the box office. The game was against the Rangers and happened to be the second game of a Home and Home series (and if you don't know what that means, tough ;) ). We had won the first game the night before in NY (much cool) so this game actually ended up being sold out! And (as Joe had informed me at some point during the speculations of the week) the game was a pretty important one, because if we won it would bring us one slot out of the playoffs. So I was happy about all of these things, even though we would have done the game anyway, but it was neat knowing it would be an exciting game, and an important game, and with the Sabres on a winning streak, and a sold-out crowd -- as opposed to just any old hockey game against any old rival. Ya know what I mean? :) (Incidentally, it now appears that I can speak about hockey as if I know what I'm talking about. Which, I really don't. But I'm learning! I really DO have the potential to be a sports fan, it just never had the chance to be realized while I was growing up. :D)

Joe was in his element. :) It's great going to games with him because he always makes sure to explain exactly what's going on, what the strategy is, why they're doing things, what the penalties mean, who the players are, etc etc. I think he was explaining it mostly to Emily and Sean this time (at least that's the direction he was facing). ;) It was so great watching him though. He was excited to be there, he was excited to have his friends there. He was smiling and laughing and talking and just happy the whole time. It was awesome! He was yelling at the players when they did dumb stuff and bounced to his feet every time we scored, clapping and cheering. I was just glad to be a part of it all. :)

At some point during I think the second period the Jumbotron had its usual "Happy Birthday" messages to members of the crowd. They wished a very happy twenty-fourth birthday to somebody named "Joe Giullo" but none of us have any idea who that is. ;) Hehehe. Incidentally, the Kiss Cam once again failed to give us our 15 seconds of fame... and this time we had FOUR willing couples! ;)

Between periods they have this thing called the "Great Goalie Race", where 4 slightly idiotic-looking civilians (representing 4 sections of the Arena) get dressed up in goalie gear and race around the ice trying to do two things: 1. win, and 2. knock down the other guys as much as possible on the way to winning. Green happened to be representing section 315... which happened to be where we were sitting... and he happened to win! And the cool part about THAT is that everybody sitting in our section got a prize! Which turned out to be a free gallon of windshield washer fluid. :D (This is WAY funnier if you rode in Rooney's car on the way to the game, which Joe and I did -- he was out of washer fluid and could barely see, and was trying to get behind semi-trucks so they'd kick up enough water to clean the windshield off. ;) )

Rooney also went out between periods and filled out a credit application in order to get a free Sabres towel. ;)

At one point during the... third period? I'm pretty sure it was the third period. Anyway, somebody missed a goal (Dumont? Maybe...) Joe of course yells at the guy for being stupid, and Mike leans over to me and goes "It's kinda funny hearing the contrast, Joe's over there telling the guy off, and here's Locke on the other side going 'Nice try, nice try!'" :D Hahaha.

The game didn't disappoint -- Sabres did well and beat the Rangers 3-1, so all-in-all, though it WAS the obvious pick of activities for the evening, it certainly was worth it! Although it WAS the people who came, more than the game itself, that made it so cool. (But it helped that the game was good. ;) )

After the game we all ended up going to Applebee's for desserts and more chatting. That was a great way to wind down. And in fact, everybody had so much fun that they decided they really need to do this on a more regular basis (get together, that is -- not necessarily hockey games). :) So, I guess they're going to try and get together once a month, next time being February 21. That is cool and I hope they all (we all, I should say, cuz I think the girls are included in that) can keep it up. It's hard staying in touch with everybody now that we're moving off in somewhat different directions, but it's even more important now.

After Applebee's we all headed home... and Joe had to go to bed... because he had to work at 7 the next morning. :/

But, I think it was worth it for him... he had a good time and enjoyed himself, and that was cool. That made me happy, because that's exactly what I was trying to do. :) Unfortunately I can't say much more about his feelings on things, seeing as how I'm not him. ;) But I think he had a memorable 24th birthday. :)

My own thoughts? Well, I have a few. :) Organizing parties is hard. Well worth the effort, but it IS much easier to be a guest than hostess. Worst was that I didn't have any drinks on hand when the party started, as people were digging into their pizza -- because the person whom I'd asked to bring the drinks was late. :/ But it wasn't a big deal -- I did have a faucet. :) I think next time I'll try to be even better organized, as in plan out who's driving and such beforehand, and all that. All good though.

Also next time I have to not say ANYTHING to Joe. As in NOTHING. Which is like, virtually impossible for me. I have the hardest time keeping secrets! Especially about things I'm excited about! Hehe. It would have been easier if I had someone to conspire with, to whom I could vent when the whole secret-keeping part became too much for me to handle. Hehe -- the issue here is naturally that the person I usually talk to about everything is Joe. So I guess... if I were planning a surprise party for anyone else, it would have been easier, because at least I could talk to Joe about it. Whereas planning a surprise party for Joe is probably more fun (because I love doing neat stuff for him) but way more of a challenge (because I can't talk to him about it, and I see him more than anyone else, and I'm BURSTING to let him in on it). :) (Incidentally, part of the reason I didn't write in my blog for like 2 weeks was because I kept wanting to write about Joe's birthday party, as the planning had consumed much of my conscious thought. And I COULDN'T write about that for obvious reasons... so I just kept my mouth shut.) ;)

But overall, I'm extremely happy with the way it turned out. I'm really glad I was able to invite everyone (and they were all able to come!) and I'm REALLY glad Joe had a good time, and I'm rather proud to know that I'm the one who pulled the whole thing off. :P So even though I couldn't give Joe what I most wanted to give him for his birthday (a day off)... I think I gave him something just as good.

"Best surprise of the night?" Joe said as I brought him home. "Sean and Emily. I didn't expect to see them there at all."

I'm really glad they could make it. But I think I knew they would. Everybody I called -- "Joe's birthday? Of course we want to come!" They love you, honey. They all wanted to be there to celebrate with YOU, for YOUR special day. I think it was the excitement of everyone I invited, that they were people you'd want to spend your birthday with, that made it such a joy to put together. Everybody was so excited about it! Everybody wanted to be a part of it! That was really, really cool.

Seeing you so happy was the icing on the cake. :)

So happy birthday once again to my love [even though it was a week ago now]. You light up my life, and not only mine, but a lot of others as well... we all just wanted to take one night to make sure you realize that. :)