Chico Numero Tres! AIIIIEEE! El Birthtado del A.T.!

Yes, there was made-up Spanish in there. I think it's more fun than real Spanish. Easier to learn, too.

And the third Chico of La Casa Birthday Season has his day! Happy birthday, A.T.!! Our "underage" roommate, A.T. turns a spry young 30 today (okay, so, yesterday, technically, but I was having massive upload issues with this), so's now he's...as young as me! Woo hoo! But unlike me, he gets a whole damn year to laugh at the rest of us. These youngsters today. No respect!

I've known A.T. since 1986. We met through our mutual friend, Kevin, that summer and became founding members of the famed Mission Park Crew (I love how that makes it sound like this is a documentary on street gangs...). And as that group soon started spending nearly all our free time together, he and I went through a lot of post-teen stuff together, and had lots of good times. Drive-in movies (with no cars...), late nights at Lyons, wacky park adventures, lots of bad films on cable (and VHS), and way too much drinky! But we made it through it all, mostly intact. Man, we've been friends so long that I'm sitting here remembering the night of his 18th birthday party. Which, is course, a night he probably wants to forget. "...From the lizards in the forests and the clams in the sea..."...

We were buddies for years, and then ended up roommates. And years after that, we even ended up co-workers for a while. We've been in each other's lives for over twenty years. I was in his wedding. We met Jane Wiedlin together. We have more inside jokes than Martin and Lewis...uh, PROBABLY had, before they stopped talking... We've inspired each other creatively, been there in times of needs, rode out the bad stuff and ROCKED all the good stuff. It's a journey that we're still on, and we both seem to believe (God knows why) that's it's only going to get better. People say that we're dreamers, sure. But we're not the only ones.

So this is a birthday shout out to my big orange brother - artist, writer, computer jock, walking music encyclopedia, dancin' fool, Dad-O #1, rat-lovin' N.E.T.W.O.R.K. man. Thanks for all the tech support, the heavy lifting, the music, all the right questions and many of the right answers, the loyalty, the understanding, the laughs, the tears, the hopes, the dreams. For being there, even when you're not there. My birthday wish for you is to keep looking ahead, knowing that it's all still coming. For both of us. And when that wave hits, let's both catch it, and ride that sucker all the way in. And since you seem to know every last person IN Sacramento, let me, on behalf of Sacramento, wish you all the best in the year to come. I can, without a doubt, guarantee you that this will be your best 39th birthday EVER.

Go Tampa.

Hey, did you hear the one about the man with five blogs?

See you in Vegas.

Mike O.