tuesday 8/16/2011
Pat's birthday (August 16th) was on a boring old Tuesday, so I decided to scheme with some of his friends and arrange a little get together in Portland for the occasion. I only told him that he was being taken on an adventure after work. I got off a little bit early, headed home, and got myself ready to go. Shortly after Pat got home, and we were out the door.
He had no idea that I was actually taking him somewhere outside of town and was very confused trying to figure out my surprise the entire duration of the trip. As we got on I-5 he suggested that we were going to Nate and Alicia's house for dinner in Albany. Nope. As we got closer to Salem he thought, his dads house? Nope. Keizer, dinner with Tony? Nope. Finally he decided it was either Portland or my dads place close by, and once I kept heading for downtown I am sure he was putting it all together. We parked near Bridgeport Brewery, headed inside, and were greeted by Tony, Chris, Brad, Alia, Colleen, and Megan. Not too bad for a last minute plea by me. When Megan walked in a few minutes after we did she had a giant pink box from Voodoo Doughnuts. A Voodoo Dozen in place of a birthday cake worked out quite nicely.
As we finished up our dinner I brought up from my purse a "present" for Pat, which was also his clue as to where we were going next. I had wrapped up a ton of quarters in a little case, and the second he got it open he said, "We are going to Ground Kontrol!" Smart cookie. This was the main part of my plan, get the boyfriend some beers and dinner, and then take him to the arcade/bar he has been wanting an excuse to go to for a long time.
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| [[ beer. voodoo. brad telling a funny joke? bday clue. quarters. ]] |
On the walk over to the arcade we stopped into Rogue so that Pat could get his free birthday shirt and beer for being a Rogue Nation Member. (Seriously an awesome deal for a free membership). He walked over with a giant mug in his hand that we all helped him drink while "playing" some of the board games provided in the bar. Check out Alias astonished face. Fan-tastic.
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| [[ walking to rogue. alias best face ever - giant beer! board games. silly. ]] |
Next stop, Ground Kontrol. This place was... interesting. It was fun, I will admit, but the cliental was certainly entertaining to watch. Also, I am terrible at video games, arcade or otherwise, and pretty much sucked at everything but racing and a little Street Fighter vs. Megan. The boys were all super into it, and us girls had fun running around being silly.
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| [[ ground kontrol. boo galaga beat us. pacman. tony. pinball machines. house of the dead. xmen. super serious. ninja turtles. up view. rock band battle. discs of tron. ]] |
crazy drive home
Finally we were all ready to take off, but weren't on the road until after one. The drive home was much longer than expected as well... While we were going through Salem (speed limit 60mph), a white truck got right behind me out of nowhere and was tailing me super close... which was weird, because there were no other cars around us at all, and I was in the slow lane. It did not take long for a cop to pull out behind him, (who was still behind me), and flip on their lights and siren, BUT to my surprise, the truck did not pull over... I got over in to the fast lane to get out of the cops way for fear of being rear ended if I pulled off, and the truck followed me over with the cop shortly behind him, so I got back into the slower lane, and the same thing happened. At this point another cop pulled on to the road behind the truck, and when I got in to the fast lane again the truck sped up (still in the slow lane) and began a high speed chase down the freeway! It was so freaking scary, because I had NO idea what I was supposed to do. For the next ten minutes me and Pat got over to let a total of eight more cops pass us heading for the truck several miles up the road. Finally we saw a cluster of lights ahead and had to slam on our brakes to avoid hitting the suddenly stopped semi trucks ahead with their hazard lights on (this was right before Albany). At this point it was after two, and we were super over it and anxious to get home. Twenty minutes later we were able to move again and could see the truck sideways in a ditch off the side of the road, tons of cops out of their cars, and no suspect around. The weird thing about this whole situation was that there has been nothing at all on the news about it... Seems a little bit fishy to me. But anyway, we made it home close to three, jumped in to bed, and were out.
I have a feeling Pat will remember this birthday for a while. :)
