Memories of Birthdays past....

I was reminded a few minutes ago of my 15th birthday and thought I would share a tale with you. (Yep, get ready Sarah - here come the skeletons! lol)

The year I turned 15 my cousin came up from New Brunswick for the month of August to visit. I suppose it was payback from her mom to mine as I had spent a month visiting them in New Brunswick when I was 12. The highlight of that trip was truly the night we raided her Dad's liquor cabinet and got drunk (yes, we were 12 and 13) and had to go to church the next morning hungover and sick as dogs. When I was a kid I thought it was so cool when we got to drink the wine at church - not so much that morning though. (though I still have so many great memories of that summer)

Anywho, the summer I turned 15 my mom landed us a job at the Canadian National Exhibition. We were going to be working with a theatre group in Kids World painting faces and being clowns. Now I'll be honest, this job sucked. Big time. We sat in a tent in sweltering heat with melting face paint. We were working with a bunch of people we didn't know and frankly, they weren't very nice to us (there is a back story to that too - for another time) Being a clown was worse because the costume was hot, the face paint itched and you were on your feet for 8 hours. Not cool when you're 15. We were also situated right next to an "Australia" demonstration and not only can I now tell you the logistics in properly throwing a boomerang but I also know all the words to "Waltzing Matilda." I'm sure those will both come in handy one day. In the end we both managed to get ourselves fired. Yep, fired. The Ex is only open for 2 weeks a year and we managed to get fired.

Anyhow, the weekend of our birthdays (I say ours because my cousins birthday is only a few days after mine) we decided to hook up with some guys that we worked with and go to the movies after work. So we came home, two guys in tow, to get ready to go to the movies and lo and behold, my mom had planned a surprise party for us in the backyard.

Here's what I remember of this party. The guys we were going to go to the movies with vanished. My mom made two cakes chocolate and vanilla with cherries on it (I called it the virgin cake) I also remember that my friend had invited some of her friends, guys I hadn't met before and I feel in love with one (he was 18 at the time) because he had long, flowing blond hair. He and his friends had hidden some beer in the trees and my brother proceeded to rat them out. They left and not long after so did the rest of the party. Thanks Bro!

I'm sure it was a lovely party and I know my mom put a lot of planning and work into it. I'm sure it would have also gone a lot better had my brother kept his mouth shut. I find it funny that two of my most solid memories of time with my cousin involve alcohol in some form or another and even funnier that we haven't seen each other at all since we've become legal drinking age. Bad seeds? Nah, we both turned out good I think.

As for the guy with the long, flowing, blond hair. I dated him about a year later for4 months. I broke up with him though because I didn't like his hands. (yeah, no joke, I thought they were icky looking and couldn't get past that) So I broke up with him and starting dating another guy with long. flowing hair. Only this time it was black.