Have you ever been the recipient of a “drunk-dialed” phone call?  I can’t say that I ever had been drunk-dialed before last night, well I suppose it really was yesterday morning.  I was just sitting watching Star Wars when my ass started to vibrate.  I had totally forgotten that I was kinda sitting on my phone.

In my past experience, when I have been called after midnight by people that I know t is usually because something is wrong.  In some ways I kind of dread answering late night phone calls from people I know because it sucks to get bad news when you are half asleep.  At least tonight I wasn’t asleep, but when I saw the name come up on the screen, the first thing I thought was “Oh crap, she must be in trouble.”  Is the fact that this is my gut reaction a bad thing?  let me put it this way, if she had been in trouble I would have been happy to help if I could, even I had been asleep.

Thankfully, there was no crisis, though this particular friend always kinda sounds like something is wrong, mostly due to her quiet and seemingly unsure inflections.  I don’t think that being drunk really helped her.  It was a good thing that I was actually away when I took the call though because she started talking to me in Spanish, which I know enough of to understand her basic Spanish (she is not a Spanish speaker).  I was a little confused at first, but since I recognized her voice, it clicked pretty fast.

Considering that my friend was drunk enough to know that she wouldn’t remember our conversation tomorrow, we actually had a coherent conversation.  She even apologised for calling so late, and wanted to know if she woke me up.  Of course she had to tell me that I was first person in her address book on her phone on account of my name.  It happens to me a lot, I am either first or last (or close to last).  We also talked about what we were doing for the summer.  I didn’t know that she was working up at Yellowstone, that is cool.  I would love to get up there at some point to visit the park.

The conversation really made me wonder what it is about being drunk that motivates people to whip out their phones and start calling people.  I mean, what did we do before everyone had a cell phone?  I bet there were a lot fewer instances of drunk dialing then.  Now, today, we know that for the most part, we won’t wake up the whole house if we call someone’s cell phone.  Although, if we really know that when we are drunk is a whole different story.  Why do people think it is fun?

Personally, if you are going to hold an intelligent conversation like I had, then it isn’t a big deal, it was nice to catch up, even if I will be the only one who remembers.  On the other hand though, if you are just going call for the sake of calling, what is the point?  I mean, it isn’t quite the same as prank calling people.  Maybe the drunk party thinks it is, who knows?  I bet most people who drunk-dial don’t remember why they thought it was a good idea the next day, so it is probably a moot point in asking.  Whatever.

Morals of story: If you call me late at night I am going to assume something is wrong and be mentally preparing to help you however I can if you ask.  Secondly, to my friend who called, you helped make my night, it was pretty boring before the phone rang.  I am glad we talked even if you won’t remember.

At 5:17AM 26 years ago I was born.  That is pretty cool in and of itself.  My parents were excited, my grandparents were excited, It sounds like it was a pretty good time.  I certainly can’t remember.  I also can’t remember the fact that when my mother got to bring me home from the hospital on February 14, she was bummed out that my father had to be working.  I do remember things like the day my sister was born because it was the day of my fourth birthday party.  I thought that was inconvenient, but My sister turned out OK!   According to my mother today, I turned out good.

It is kind of fun to wake up in the morning to have it snowing.  I like that about having a winter birthday.  Maybe the fact that I was born in the winter has something to do with how much I enjoy the winter.  It is also fun to wake up and have an inbox full of emails and notifications with birthday wishes.  Normally I am not a big fan of Facebook messages, but the fact that people take the time to send a quick note for a birthday is pretty nice.  When you consider the number of “friends” I have on facebook, the fact that even a few take the time to send a birthday note is kinda cool.

As expected, I talked to most of my family today.  Thankfully, my mother waited until after I woke up to call me.  Unfortunately my sister called first, right after I poured myself a bowl of cereal.  I was going to go back to it after I got off the phone with her, but then my mother called.  Needless to say, that bowl of cereal was a little to soggy to eat after two phone calls.  There are worse things of course, but it was a little sad.  It was nice to talk to my sister, I have talked to her more this week than many months on account of her birthday was on the seventh.

I think the only people I didn’t talk to were my grandparents on my mother’s side.  They are in Israel right now, so that is not surprising, but the email they sent was nice to get.  If nothing else, a birthday is a pretty good excuse to check in with the family!

I had a nice dinner with Ruth, though it left my stomach feeling a little funky.  I think I just had a little to much spicy wings…  In any event, I have been feeling better and better.  After the show tonight I am going out with a couple friends from the theatre for a little celebration, and all in all I think it was a pretty good day.  So, thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, hopefully this is the beginning of another good year!