Video Game Birthday Party (for a 29 year old..?)

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Last week I turned 29 years old, (or young, for the optimistically minded.)



Now, it's no secret to anyone in my circle of friends and family that I'm something of a.. well.. geek. I like video games and comic books, the occasional anime, and I'm in school studying for my A+, NET+, and Microsoft certs to begin a career as a professional techie. And while, yes, I love power tools, daily exercise, weekend football games (Go Rutgers, Go Eagles!) and beer; any spare time I get when not at school, paying the bills, or out with said circle of friends and family - I'm playing video games.



Last weekend, my beautiful girlfriend threw me a surprise birthday party. At our local video game store, (Play N Trade, to be specific.) Here I am - an adult, a year shy of 30 and 4 years out of college, and I'm celebrating in a gaming store. Was I embarrassed? Some might be, and some might liken it to an adult having a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses.
But not me.. At first I didn't know what to think, but then I realized something. I was spending a night drinking with my favorite people in the world - all under one roof, playing video games (Nintendo, Sega, and early Sony,) eating cake and pizza in a store that was now closed at 9:30pm and all our own to do whatever! It was a kid's dream - My dream as a kid - and that was exactly what I needed in my stress-filled life.
What we all needed.
1 lawyer, 1 plumber, 2 secretaries, a nurses aid/waitress, a geneticist, a social worker, a Korean overseas ESL teacher, an insurance agent, a future IT tech, and a truck driver - all with very grown-up jobs and responsibilities, in one room being kids again for just 2 hours.
Why the hell should I have been embarrassed?



Anyway, just wanted to share something awesome, and was curious if anybody else had a similar childhood-during-adulthood experience that might be video game related..

Edit: The cake was made by my awesome little sister, and I can assure you the guy attempting to give Bowser a "check-up" is neither a nurses aid, nor the lawyer I spoke of..

[Betamax001]

I had my high school graduation party be Mario themed. It was pretty awesome. I busted out an old Zenith TV from 1987 or 88 with faux wood panelling and hooked my NES and SNES to it and had it running classic games.



We had other assorted Mario and other Retro video game stuff such as Space Invader and Tetris shaped ice cubes, Pac Man shaped cookies, Mario mushroom cupcakes, and other crap I can't remember because it was a couple of months ago hah

[Jerkface Killah]

I'm 23 and I had my birthday at Dave & Busters. It was great! I will probably continue this trend for years to come

[Pichu]

Now you give me hopes for when I'm in my twenties.

That is truly awesome man!

[CRTGAMER]

Happy Birthday!

That party looks like the best! Friends and your own run of the store playing games, very very cool.

[Mendoza]

Never be ashamed of what you are.

Take what joy you can when life affords you the opportunity, cause they will run out eventually.

My friend's uncle celebrated his big 40 at a place called pump it up. One of those in door play gyms for kids with bounce hosues and such.

My friend and i were both there and went wild.

Did some of the staff look at us funny, yeah, but we had a blast.

[Hobie-wan]

Sounds like it was awesome and people had fun. That's all that matters.

It's great to be an adult when called for, but to have your inner child alive and well that comes out to play sometimes. We had a work party as a place kinda like DnB a few months ago. We all played laser tag and it was a blast. Our group was about half work people and half random other kids and adults that were there. While we were playing laser tag, we were all just a bunch of people having fun. The young kinds and the older people were all getting into it and everyone was getting along great.

[wip3outguy7]

That's awesome man! Happy Birthday! Enjoy it while you can. Everything goes downhill when you turn 30. LOL! j/k (no really).

Just a week ago, the company I work for threw a huge bash at a local go kart/arcade/pizza/lazer tag place here in town. Everything in the arcade was set to free play. I probably played $50 worth of Daytona USA and Sega Super GT. A workmate and I had score runs going in Time Crisis 3. I ate a lot of pizza. I was basically 12 again.

[D.D.D.]

Looks like fun. I can only think of the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese's that would add to that. Well, add in a few strippers too and that would be better too.

BTW, what's up with pointing the drum stick at your friend's junk??

[Gamerforlife]

Awesome dude, glad you had a great birthday. It's funny that some people freak out when they get close to thirty. When I tell a lot of people I know I'm 31, they're like, "31? You're still a kid"

I say the same to people under 20

It's all relative