Can't believe I lived through my 40th birthday. I could have died a few times. Once from an almost golf cart turn over. Another from near alcohol poisoning. And last from the horrible bruising I got from trying to fly. (okay, a little dramatic, but the bruises were horrid!!)
Let me start with the day I was born. Mom had already had two daughters and really wanted to give dad a son. When the doctor swore this time I was to be the boy, mom had me induced on my dad's birthday as a present to him. She went through extra pains to get me here, and, surprise... another girl. Poor dad. Luckily, daddy didn't hold it against me, haha. So I was daddy's present for his birthday and we've shared it ever since, haha. They did try one more time for a boy, and thought they better stop with little sis, after four girls, it's just time to stop.
I had to plan a year in advance to be able to be off on my birthday. See, I was a contract weekend worker at a hospital there in Corpus Christi, TX. Which meant I had to guarantee I would be there every weekend for two 17 hour shifts back to back to cover the weekends, with only 2 guaranteed weekends off a year. The previous year, on my 39th birthday, I tried to get the weekend off but someone already requested it, so I had to work on my birthday that year. I immediately put in, in a year in advance, to be off for my big 40th birthday in 2011, as it was going to fall on a weekend day. I was NOT going to be working when I hit the big 4-0 by golly!!
Little sis decided she was going to throw a party for me and dad for our birthdays at her house. When she offers to do that, your only answer should be 'YES!'. For these reasons.... #1. She lives on North Padre Island, Texas, like two blocks from the beach. #2. Her big beautiful house sits on a canal and she has a boat right there. #3. She has a pool with attached hot tub and a kick ass party patio set up. #4. She throws awesome parties! Here is one such party, notice our gangster squirt guns?
John was home that week so he got to be there for the party. At the time, he was working three weeks in Oklahoma, and off for a week and would come home to south Texas. It was like he got a week vacation every month. Lots of driving for him, but it worked. The party was going to be on a Saturday so he was getting to be there, but was going to have to get up early Sunday morning and start driving back to Oklahoma.
So, as it was, it was my big 4-0. The party was in the later afternoon. What do you do when you hit the big 4-0 and you are off and not going back to work for another 7 days? You start drinking early, that's what! Yep. I sure did. I got to little sis's pretty buzzed already. Hey, I wasn't sad for hitting 40, I was just ready to party! haha There's cake, and funky glasses and fun stuff all around, she really did it up good. :) We decide to take a leisurely boat ride down the canals, lots of beautiful houses on the canals. The weather was awesome!! Here is a pic of me and John on the boat cruise:
We get back to the house, more drinking. Swimming. Eating. Drinking. Laughing. Rinse and repeat. It was getting on in the evening and it was about that time when Pammy ran out of gas. See... I do this disappearing thing, I'm kind of known for it. When I've ran out of gas and I know I'm done for, I will disappear and go to bed. You may think I went to the bathroom, I just never come back out and can be found asleep in the bed. I mean to do it that way, just want to avoid anyone making a fuss or someone feeling like the party is over, it's not, I'm just done. So just let me go and everyone just keep on doing what they are doing and everyone is happy. As it was that night, after me drinking all day, and the sun and the swimming, I was done for. So it was probably about 8-ish that night and I found the bed little sis said we could have for the night and I crawled in and passed out.
At one point I remember John coming to bed, barely. I was still pretty out. But, about midnight, there was a knock on the door, little sis poked her head in and whispered "Pam! Dad wants to sing to you on the beach on your birthday." I said, 'Okay!' and got up, I was down! See, my dad used to sing to us sometimes in the car while growing up, and we swear he sings better than Merle Haggard, but it's a rare treat to get to hear him, so upon hearing he wanted to sing to me for my birthday on the beach, you just DON'T say no.
So we loaded up more wine in the golf cart and off we went! I had given my dad a huge bottle of SKY vodka for his present and apparently him and my brother in law had gotten in to it and were feeling pretty good. The beach was pretty deserted, the wind was perfect, the temperature was perfect, the waves were mesmerizing. We sat on the beach for some time in the middle of the night, me, my dad, little sis, and her hubby, with my dad singing Merle Haggard songs, it was awesome!! Then he said something that was the very best present I could have gotten. He said "I wish y'all were all 10 years old again. I wouldn't change one second of it!". He LOVED raising us girls, and wished he could go back and do it all again.
After a while it was time to head back. Well.. okay.. me and little sis were out of wine and dad and bro-in-law were low on their concoction. This is where almost dying comes in. We were a block away from little sis's house when it happened. The wine glass turned over and so she reached down to pick it up. You can't spill the wine, yo! Yet, as she was the driver, and reaching down to pick up her glass, she cut the wheel with her which sent the golf cart careening sharply right. Dad and bro-in-law were on the back and I have no idea how they hung on for this next part, but in an attempt to correct the golf cart little sis cut the wheel sharply left. You can see where this is going. Imagine dad and bro-in-law hanging on for dear life while their feet are flying to the rocking of the golf cart that is trying to right itself. People from 6 blocks over could probably hear our screams of laughter (or were they just screams?? hmm...).
Okay, golf cart righted, no one dead, we get back to the house. And we are loud. Hey, that's what you do when you've been drinking and just get back in in the middle of the night, right? Dad decided he's had enough birthday celebrating and decides to go to bed. I am just getting my second wind and decide to go hang out in the hot tub with little sis. Yes, more wine had we.
We were out there for quite a while, making mom mad a lot at our noise, coming to the balcony from her room to yell at us to quieten down, hehe. It's at this point I decided to try out my wings and fly. In my inebriated brain, I thought it would be cool to attempt to be Supergirl and leap over the hot tub rim into the pool in a smooth dive. You can see where this is going, I bet. The rim was pretty thick and the hot tub area was raised above the pool, so my attempt to be graceful got a lot of laughs from little sis. She decided to try to help me accomplish this dazzling feat by helping hoist me over the rim. Only, the front of my thighs connected with the rim something horrible before getting into the pool, which garnered even more laughs from both of us. So much for gracefulness.
We must have been pretty loud as mom came to scold us again. It was pretty late, probably 3am, and I knew John was wanting us to leave about 5am to head home so he could pack and make his long drive back to Oklahoma, so we decided to call it a night.
I can't really remember getting up and getting into the car. I don't know if I remembered to get all of my things. I do remember a freezing cold bathing suit I had to put back on and sitting in the front seat and driving the 20 minutes from little sis's house to our house, my face on the dash. Every time John turned a corner my lips just kind of drug across the dash to whatever side my body was making me lean, he kept having to put me upright. I'm not sure I ever drank that much in a 24 hour period, it was bad. After John packed and headed out, I decided to curl up into a ball and die.
Hours later I looked down at my legs and saw the most horrid bruising on the front of my thighs. It was bad. Like, real bad. And it was no wonder, thinned blood from all the alcohol.
I may try to find the pic of me and dad with our birthday cake and goofy glasses, it was a hoot! I'll edit and add it later if I find it.
It took me a few days of feeling like dog shit to get over the celebrating. Mom told me it took dad a bit longer. Okay, no more vodka present for dad, got it! :) But boy! It was one HELL of a party!!
#Stories
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