13!

Well, not quite- I'm still 12 *sighs heavily*, but I will be 13 on Wednesday. :D Although it was early, I celebrated my birthday with my friends two days ago since it was a Friday, and it was the only way I could do a sleepover. It ROCKED! Okay, first of all, we had this "mystery dinner" thing in my family's garage. It was crazy. All of us received these menus with these nonsensical names on them standing for anonymous foods. Then, we each selected three names on the menus and then "waiters" (my dad, mom, brother Matthew and his friend Ben) took them and went inside our house to get our orders. There were all sorts of wacky foods. For example- "Yard" on the menu turned out to stand for a handful of spinach *grimaces* and "Little Poopies" (I know, crude, but I didn't make up the names!) stood for these milk duds that literally sealed your mouth shut when you chewed while "No Moo Moo" stood for cheese pizza with no pepperoni or sausage while "Dotted Moo Moo" stood for pizza with those toppings. Oh, and all the while, we were in the garage with the garage door open all wearing these cone birthday hats- y'know, the ones four and five year old's wear at their parties. We had to cause it was the "restaurants" so called policy. So while we laughed our heads off ordering stuff off the mystery menus, random neighbors and pedestrians (some that I knew, embarrassingly) were walking by on the street casting us scornful, mocking glances at our "childishness". I mean, I would too if I walked by someones garage and inside were a bunch of teenagers with those cones on. *laughs* Afterwards, we all walked up to a store about one third of a mile away to purchase toppings for ice cream- while still wearing the cones. :D Just for the fun of it, we waved and smiled stupidly at passing cars, and people actually waved back.*grins* What was really funny though was that my brother Alex and friend Josh were deliberately distancing themselves from us, trying to avoid being singled out as friends of the rest of us "cone-wearers". So we arrived at the store, and the employees managing the cash registers could hardly keep a straight face while we purchased the sugar and junk food we needed. Then we jogged back home, took off our beloved cones, devoured ice cream and cake, and then hastened outside for two hours while it was still light out to play two games of intense basketball. Afterwards, we headed out into my backyard and rested in chairs around a blazing bonfire to play Mafia (the best unphysical game in the word). Luckily, I was never Mafia so I didn't ruin the game with laughing and giving myself away. We played a couple games, then went inside, drank root beer, snacked on sour gummy worms and popcorn, and then watched I Walked on the Moon, a film where the comedian Brian Reagen displays his comedy, (he's hilarious! Even, in my opinion, funnier than Tim Hawkins) and also Remember the Titans. Once we were finished with those, it was 3:00 a.m., and we settled down for the night and just talked. Then: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
All in all, it was an awesome party. I have incredible friends. :D
Oh, one more thing: Thank you SO much Josh for the Fray cd! If you haven't listened to them yet, you've gotta hear Never Say Never and Say When by them- especially Say When. They're amazing.

Well, I've gotta go- Little House on the Prairie!

Jake