I cannot think of a song with lyrics in it about being twenty-six

Once a year you spend an entire day accepting well wishes and gleeful comments from friends and family. That day approaches for me at times as if out of nowhere, and I have a unique habit of not actually doing anything on that day, but systematically destroying my liver the night beforehand.

This year was no exception, with Baby Bop and Wesley assisting in my journey towards death by purchasing a unique and overly refined blend of alcohol for my consumption. Not only did I sample at the very least four continents of hops and barley, but the magical Blue Death from Miami made a return and assured my memory would cease to work from 3am on.

Good times were had however, as I can guarantee you will never hear a more faithful rendition of Beat It than as performed by myself with Bop on back-up vocals.

The day of birth itself? What more could I ask for than my spiritual connection to the Detroit Red Wings being even stronger? Not only did the current owning regime purchase the team on the very day of my birth, but our 11th Stanley Cup was awarded on my day this year. I will forever happily share a bond with Cup number 11.

The rest of the day was as I alluded to, uneventful. A free car wash followed by free thunderstorm and tornado warnings; more of the same ol. I did take time and think about what it means when certain people take a moment from their lives to wish you a happy day of birth and others do not. Almost assuredly, like a royal hierarchy, the closest of my companions extended 10 to 15 minutes of their lives to calling me; while an eclectic collection of good friends and others I never would imagine would stop and say hi, blessed me with a Happy Birthday. Probably the most telling event of all would be of the few women in my life I would classify myself as stricken by, not one found the time to say hello. I’ll have to write that one down somewhere.

All in all, special friends and special hockey players made me smile on June 4th. After all, one should feel special. Only about 15 million other people have that day to themselves.