Matty's Birthday

It was Matt's birthday last Thursday and we all went out for dinner on Friday at Palomino in Seattle. I hadn't seen everyone since New Year's Eve because of being snowed-in, so we had a lot of catching up to do. Mike and Garrett came out, too, and I hadn't seen them since I left last March. It was an awesome dinner with so much laughter going on, my jaw still ached long after the last bite of my seafood linguini.

Mike knew one of the guys at the restaurant, so he treated all of us to a round of free drinks. Woohoo! I got white wine because up until now, I've only ever had red. In Garrett's words, I'm a purist (like him - he got ale). He and I shared a wink and a moment. The white wasn't too bad but I like red better. What I really wanted was some cider - Magners, actually - but alas there was no cider to be had. Oh well, it was free anyway.

After dinner, Matt thought we were all going home but little did he know that we were all going to surprise him back at his apartment with a cake that Georgia (and Ryan?) had made. He and Kenny had to drop off another friend at her car so that gave us enough time to get to the apartment before him. He had no idea at all and that was awesome. The look on Matt's face was priceless. Of course, we couldn't share the cake because we had to get down to R Place to get in at least an hour or so of dancing!

Matt's birthday kiss from Ryan.

We tried to find a birthday present for Matt but it turned out he was taken already. Bummer. Then Mykal showed up, who Ryan hasn't heard from since New Year's, but there was a happy ending for that story. Yay! Ryan deserves it. Now if I can just get one, too...

Ryan and Mykal taking a self-portrait but Aaron and I snuck into the picture. Hehehe.

To award me for my sneakiness, Mykal had Matt take a group picture of us. We so cute.

At one point, as Ryan and Mykal were totally oblivious to everyone else, I sat down on a couch with Aaron and we guy-watched. (Too bad all of them didn't swing my way! And Aaron was too chicken to talk to any of them! Bless. What a waste.) A guy and a girl who weren't dating (you can tell by the body language) sat down on the couch perpendicular to ours. I tapped him on the knee and struck up a conversation. (It started with "Excuse me, are you gay?" LOL. For real.) Turns out he's not gay and neither was his female friend. He's the first straight guy I've met at R Place! Whoa. We expounded on the pros of R Place and how awesome it is. He then asked me if I smoked and I said no. He replied, "Oh good, neither do I." I raised a mental eyebrow. Good, eh? Sounds like something a single guy would say. Anyway, he said he was going to go outside with his friends so they could have a smoke and "I'll catch you later." Haha, I never saw him again that night. No big deal since he wasn't that gorgeous. Ah, well.

All in all, it was a fabulous night.