A Nicely Wrapped Birthday

I turned 30 earlier this month and to celebrate I went to Disneyland for the weekend with my mom, brother, sister, and sister-in-law.  The trip was heavily subsidized by my parents and I'm grateful for that.  The weekend was a hoot and here are some of the funny moments.

When she travels my mom keeps important stuff (passport, money, credit cards, etc.) in a pouch that she wear around her neck.  It goes under her shirt and hangs at waist level which allows for convenient access.  When she was going to pay for my birthday lunch she reached into the pouch and her credit card wasn't there.  She looked on the table and it wasn't there and she looked in her purse and it wasn't there and she crawled around on the floor and it wasn't there.  She finally stood up and a bunch of stuff, including the credit card, fell out the bottom her pants.  It turns out that she'd been taking things out of the pouch, but instead of putting them back in the pouch she'd accidentally been stuffing them down her pants.

Minnie gave me an awkward birthday kiss

Jay and I loved the California Screamin' roller coaster at Disney's California Adventure.  The girls were kind enough to ride it with us a few times, but we mostly went on our own.  We started using the single rider line because it was way faster than waiting for 30 minutes even if it did mean that we had to ride with a stranger.  The first time we tried it Jay was told to stand by two empty seats.  The ride operator then asked Jay, while pointing at me, "Do you know him?" and Jay responded, "I've never seen him before in my life," which was ridiculous since we'd just been talking and laughing together.  The ride operator told me to sit with Jay on the ride and a lady just behind us said, "They look like twins!"  I'm pretty sure the operator knew we were brothers and just sat us together to be nice. 

When we got off the ride the cast member in charge of the Fast Pass line told us he'd let us in if we could answer a Disney trivia question.  Feeling very much like characters in a Mighty Python movie we accepted the challenge.  He asked us how long the Genie was in the lamp before Aladdin found him and we correctly answered 10,000 years ("10,000 years will give you such a crick in the neck!").  We got right on the ride again.  Even though the line was 30 minutes long we managed to ride the roller coaster twice in 15 minutes.  We really feel like we cheated the system. 

The whole weekend was a blast and the second best part of it (the first being spending time with my family) was that I didn't have to spend my birthday watching the Super Bowl.  That would have been the worst. 

We looked pretty silly wearing ponchos on the water rides,
but they kept us dry and Laura's hair looking spectacular

When I got back to Tucson I walked into my room and everything was covered in wrapping paper.  My first thought was, "This is hilarious and my friends love me."  My second thought was, "Wow, look at all those presents they bought me!"  My third thought was, "Oh, they just wrapped up the stuff I already had."  I actually had a really fun time unwrapping stuff because I had no idea what most of the "presents" were.  For example, I excitedly picked up a long, cylindrical "present" wondering what it could possibly be.  It turned out to be a highlighter.  Not exciting, but still fun.

Look at all those presents!

I love that Phil wrapped my lamp

And Michael wrapped my fan

Since I was in California on my actual birthday I had a few friends from church over to have a little party.  Amy Flood prepared a game called "BEN"GO that we all played.  It's just BINGO, but instead of numbers and letters the spaces were things about me (tall, reality shows, Disney movies, espeak espanish, etc.).  It was a hoot and I was impressed with Amy Flood's witty title. 

Sarah planned a little quiz about me for everyone to take.  Phil and Michael won each getting 10 correct answers out of 15.  Here are a few of the questions (correct answers below):

1) What is Ben's favorite color?

2) What is Ben's favorite TV show?

3) How tall is Ben?

4) What countries has Ben lived in?

5) Unlike most normal people, Ben doesn't like to hold ______.

6) What is Ben's favorite Disney movie?

7) Name something that Ben collects.

8) What would Ben say is his greatest talent?

It was a great birthday and being 30 feels pretty much the same as being 29.

Jay and I brought the exact same red shirt, but we wore it
on different days

Quiz answers:  

1) Blue

2) 30 Rock

3) 6'3"

4) Mexico, Bolivia, and Portugal

5) Babies

6) Mary Poppins

7) Magnets

8) Making puns