Yesterday evening I attended the birthday party for Sidney’s nephew. The Spider-Man themed bash was held at a swimming pool with palm trees surrounding the area. The kids ate Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets and feasted on a beautiful Spider-Man birthday cake. Of course the adults were welcome to indugle as well as I had two slices.

Sidney’s nephew, Harrison, celebrated his second birthday yesterday.

As I watched the children run around and have fun I tried reminiscing about my birthday parties as a little kid. To be honest, except for one certain occasion, it took me some memory jogging to remember my childhood birthday celebrations. After some thinking I remembered various parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s, Laser Quest, a local pizza parlor, and the classic party at home. The one instance that I remebered instananeously though? Let me tell you about it.

I thought I was royalty the October 8 day when a limo pulled up in my driveway to take my friends and I on a cruise through the mean streets of Spokane. After attending a wedding reception the previous summer that gave kids free rides in the limousine used by the wedding party, I couldn’t stop talking about it. Getting a taste of riding in the back of a stretched limo with tinted windows and a phone that called up to the driver had me all kinds of excited. My parents told me after my ten minute ride in the limousine that summer I constantly brought up the “luxurious” experience.

My 8th birthday party was supposed to be just a typical bash at home with games, a Halloween theme, and cake. When my friends had arrived and we were all huddled inside the house my dad told me to look outside. Almost twenty years later I still remember the surprise and excitement that overtook my little body when I saw that stretched limo parked along our curb. We all ran outside. The driver, named Leonardo, opened the doors for all of us to pile in. With the sunroof open he had me stand up through it for a photo op. My head barely made it out. He gave me his driver’s hat to put on as a cool prop.

Me wearing the hat of the limo driver.

With my birthday party celebrants in the back with me and my dad in the passenger’s seat up front with Leo, we took off. The divider separating us from the adults went up and we used the built in phone to communicate with mission control. For that hour (I think it was an hour at least…could have just been thirty minutes) I got to call the shots on where we went. To be honest, I can’t remember the locations we visited except for McDonald’s. I look back on it now and realize how dumb that stop was. Sure enough we arrived at our local McDonald’s but the limo just drove through the parking lot and back on the road. We didn’t even go through the drive-thru. Dumb decision on my part.

The limo driver wearing his actual hat and me wearing my prized Duke hat.

Although I don’t rememebr the other details on where we stopped I do remember us rolling our windows down and waving to traffic. A bunch of kids hanging out the window acting like idiots for all vehicles to see…talk about great marketing for the limo service.

It seemed like no time before the limo rolled back into the neighborhood and pulled alongside our curb. We got out and I am sure Leonardo probably drove away as fast as he could. We entered the house and did cake and presents and that was that.

Looking back on it now I think to myself what a miserable way to spend a birthday. These days I am not too keen on spending any additional time in a vehicle…even if it happens to be stretched and stocked with champagne. But at the time it was cool and to this day I still have memories of that birthday. So whatever inflated amount of money my parents paid for that joy ride I can say it was actually probably worth it. Don’t Blink.