To summarize my 21st Birthday: It was horrible. However, it wasn't  a complete rout, thankfully. Let's start from the top:

I woke up this morning, and my wife gave me a b-day hug and kiss. I was feeling pretty lucky, and I was in high spirits when it was time for me to take her to work. I did so without incident, and it was even really nice outside. The sun was shining, and there was a flock of birds underneath the front of my car when it was my time to leave. I get to work, and open my email inbox, looking for the 'b-day' announcement that they normally send out to our department announcing birthdays.

It wasn't there.

That razzed me a little bit, but I really wasn't surprised. I've become totally disillusioned with this company, and I seriously have to consider the benefits of telling a friend to come to work for this shithole. Anyways, that's another debate. Then today was even busier than yesterday, with more people getting more and more grouchy and pissed off (or dumb) with each call. This put me in a bad mood for when I went on break around 4:00. When I came back, I talked to my friend Angie in HR. She told the that she hadn't gotten anywhere with my request for work to allow me access to the copies of MS Publisher that they have so that I can put the company newsletter together. I also found out that work wouldn't let me go to lunch at nine so that I could go to my parents for cake and ice cream. At least Angie helped me out, telling me that she wishes that she was my supervisor. That meant a lot, seriously.

And then this overpriced mouthpiece for my department's client comes along to Melissa, and sees her playing her little mini-PS1 while she's not on a call. He then threatens to send her home if he sees it again, and our interim sup bans them. Just mini-PS1s, not Game Boys. Not little poker and blackjack games. Nothing else. Just mini-PS1s. This happened after Angie left, but I sent her an email asking for an opportunity to redress this (read: politely bitch this guy out for being a pompous asshole and being an inconsiderate sexist jerk), and I know she'll give us a date and time to do so, and will even listen. I'm hoping she says it's okay, because then I'll get it in an email, print out two copies, and shove them down this asshole and my interim-sup's throats. Then go play more PlayStation.

Anyways, I left for lunch around 7:30, and decided to go to my parent's house. Before I did though, my friend Melissa put on her devilish face and told me to stand in the middle of the cubicle-area that she, Teri, and Tiffany occupied. I walked over, looking for a suspicious prank or joke. I was surprised when they sang me 'Happy Birthday'. It hurts to write this, but I almost started crying. I went over to my folks' house afterwards feeling a little better. Mom wished me a happy birthday, but my dad, Nathan and Katie were there. Mom was the only one to wish me a happy b-day, and the other's didn't seem to remember what day it was until I was leaving.

I came back to the apartment, and made myself a sandwich. I noticed that there was 6 'someone signed your guestbook' notices in my inbox. When I see that many, it usually means that Rogue Reviews got blitzed again. I almost didn't click on them to see if it was my g-book, or if it was for the signup g-book for RR. I was honestly surprised to see that every last one of them was for my guestbook. Unfortunately, Diaryland having some problems, and I couldn't read what was written. I did when I got home, but I'll get to those soon.

I went back to work, and then it hit me. My birthday's been really crappy. I've been bitched at left and right by mindless assholes, I come home from work to do more work, I spend my weekends doing Rogue Reviews and a stupid newsletter that they don't seem to be in a hurry to let me work on at work, or I'm working on Deadlands. I get no real free time to call my own, I don't get to spend a fraction of the quality time I want to with my wife, and all for what? Nothing. Nothing except for the scattered thank you's from people who, while I welcome their thanks since it's needed, aren't the people who should be thanking me. Hell, the stress is even starting to affect my sex life, and I never would have imagined things getting that bad.

It was all I could do to prevent myself from crying for the first time in ages at work. I just sat there, doing more work for Deadlands, making sure the new monsters and Gamemastercharacters I created aren't too powerful. It was still busy all the way up until 10:30. Nicki did come and get me from work, though, and wasn't in a crabby mood. She at least helped me calm down a little, but I'm still feeling burned out. Tomorrow I get up and do more work on Deadlands, or maybe the newsletter. I'm not sure yet. Friday night I play Deadlands with Melissa and Will. Teri had to drop out due to the timeframes that we have to play, which is fine, but it's kind of a bummer really. Saturday, well, I'm not sure what's coming up then, but I'm certain it's going to be Rogue Reviews related. That's really all I spent last weekend on.

Nicki said she's making me a present, but according to her site, it's going to take a couple days to build. I should be excited, but I'm not, and I think the stress is finally getting to me now.

In short: I didn't get drunk. I didn't get laid. I didn't even get a cake or a present. I got bitched at, and I came home nearly crying. I also came home with teh biggest headache I've ever had. What a fucking way to spend a milestone in my life.

I do have to thank Witchy for the drink suggestions and Trance for the plug and the traffic that came with it. Thanks also to The Kitty, Kate, Mike, SoulCrusader, and Kyth for the b-day wishes. You guys really helped me salvage what I could from what should have been one of the biggest days of my life. I'm just hoping tomorrow is a better day for me. I'm wondering if I'm jinxed though somehow. My mom told me that I was born at 4:20 P.M. I had to ask my friend Jerry at work if that meant that I was supposed to take a hit and a shot. I felt it was ironic, but he came back saying "No, it's i-chronic." True, True.

"The difference between a player and pimp is that a player is in it for the love of the game." - deep thought during a conversation about pimps at work on 4/10/02.