So I had a good birthday party after all...after church, I went over to the other building where LifeTeen is held, and Charlie (the youth minister) sent me into the back room to get him a soda. I turn to the right, and I'm immediately tackled by one person, while someone else puts a cloth bag over my head, and a third handcuffs my hands in front of my face. I think, oh great, some teens are going to embarass me. Then, I recognized Charles' (best friend) voice, and I think, "oh crap, they're taking me somewhere." A group including Charles, Jake, Drew, Matt and coworker James, all wearing panty-hose over their heads, hustle me out through the LifeTeen building, out the side door, around front across the patio also full of teens (some of whom were screaming, despite Charles trying to sing happy birthday so people would know what was going on), and they put me in the trunk of Matt's car, and drove away. For future reference, don't make kidnapping drives too long. It was really hot in there, and by the end of it, I was almost sick to my stomach, having trouble breathing. I make it sound terrible, but really, I was just pissed because I had a new techno cd in my car, and they were blasting some crap [sighs and laughs] No, and the last 5 minutes were bad. I had to start regulating my breathing, to prevent some of the nausea and/or hyperventilating. [laughs] We ended up going to Michelle's apartment (she had planned the whole thing, kudos to her, and enlisted the help of everyone; kidnapping me from church was a decision made on sunday, because they couldn't get me up to work because of church) where there was a good party, a lot of people were drunk. Michelle had to kick us out because she had work in the morning, which was ok, because we expected it, so the party moved to Naomi's apartment (the three drivers were not drunk, so don't worry about that), where it continued for a good long time. I think I grabbed everyone's butt except Naomi's brother's, because I just met him that night. I think James' response was the funniest. People left a couple of times, and people giving other people rides came back, and the party morphed a little each time but stayed cool. I ended up watching The Jacket, which stars Adrian Brody and Kiera Knightly (sp?), a very strange movie but very good, and I recommend it to people who enjoy movies that make you think. The only real negative to the evening was that Jake almost got jumped while moving Naomi's car; a guy came up behind him and put a knife to his side, demanding the car keys. Jake slammed his heel down on the guy's foot, headbutted him, and took off running, getting a few small pokes in the side and a small cut in his shirt. But the car was not stolen, and jake wasn't seriously injured or killed, of which we are very glad. Good guardian angels [smiles]. But he was shaken up a lot; when he got back to the apartment and locked the door, he was almost crying, worrying so much about his son, who almost lost his daddy. It didn't ruin the party, which was slowly coming to an end anyway because of time and untimely puke, but it put a twist on the end of it, thoughts of mortality and such, that helped us enjoy the end of the party that much more. Anyway, blogger, life goes on and people need to be called, so I will update you more later. au revoir, until again. And no, no matter how much other people want to, we are Not going to repeat that party as often as possible. [laughs]