It could be.....It could be so nice!

CELEBRATE!

In the spirit of the Mike Denby birthday celebration kicking off tonight, i have decided to write a little about celebrations from the past present and who konws maybe even the future. Let's get some feedback on this one, share a story via comment form of your favorite celebration of years past.

First i'd like to share a sentimental little story. Just about the power of Christmas. I mean let's face it Christmas rules, but it's not the same now as it was when you were a kid. I'm sure we all remember not being able to sleep Christmas Eve, and then waking up far too early and barging in on our parents to drag them downstairs so we could see whether we actually got what we were hoping for. And i mean parents always seem to come through in the holiday season. So this is a shout out to Big Mel and Little Anne for their contributions to my happiest Christmas moment. Let's set the scene. I was probably 9 or 10, and like many young Canadians i loved hockey, and more than anything i loved playing goalie. At this point i was using the rink equipment whenever i played which is smelly, disgusting, and subpar. My dream was to have my own goalie pads, i knew exactly which ones i wanted to, D&R, all white, everytime we'd go to National Sports i'd just stare at those beauties hoping and praying. Now my parents knew how much i wanted them, but i also knew they were expensive, so i never really pushed it. A day or two before the big day my mom kind of told me that she didn't want to disappoint me, but money was tight and they were just a little too expensive and didn't want me to get my hopes up. Clearly i was upset but i played it off. So anyways Christmas morning, my bro my sis and I go bounding down the stairs and into the family room. I run straight over to the tree and start looking for something with my name on it. Then i notice my parents, aswell as my bro and sis kind of watching me smiling. I'm like "what?" And they kind of motion with their eyes to my left. And leaning against the fireplace, with a big old bow on them, are my goalie pads. I'd walked right past them and hadn't even noticed. Obviously i lost it, screaming, jumping, hugging, the whole 9 yards. Never forgot that. And to top it off I even got the matching goalie glove all wrapped up, and then took my savings and bought the blocker. So is it a funny story? No not really at all, but hell i'll always remember that.

Now let's look at some other awesome celebration moments. Just quickly. There was the time Mrs. Denby planned a surprise party for Mike. We were all waiting in the basement for him, and we hear him coming down the stairs with Julien who was the setup guy. He gets to the bottom of the stairs, we scream surprise, and he's wearing a leotard over his face and like almost falls backward into the wall. That was awesome.

Then there was the time i planned an elaborate surprise party for the man you all know as "The Comfort", yes Derek Mumford. I had it all figured out, everyone was at my house waiting, mumford and i came back, i think from bowling. Before we could get into the house old Pinelli comes rolling up drunk as fuck. "So derek......were you surprised?" I'm shooting fuckin big old pointy daggers at him from my eyes, as in "shut the fuck up!" But pinelli keeps going, "Eric, was he surprised? Were you surprised? Weren't expecting that were you!" Hahha he just wasn't taking the hint. Sure enough the jig was up, i slumped my shoulders and put my head down, and we went to the basement and Derek feigned surprise!

Another great celebration night. New Year's Eve, at the Mod Club last year. Julien somehow gets kicked out super early in the night, he's absolutely smashed and proceeds to whip some snowballs at the Mod Club for a while. Ends up heading back to Denby's i believe and continues to get hammered. Eventually he decides to stumble his ass home. But it's freezing out so he tries to get a cab. As we all know New Year's Eve is not the easiest night to hail a cab, damn near impossible actually. So some guy sees him, and out of the goodness of his heart pulls over and offers Julien a lift. Favre gratefully accepts. So after some polite smalltalk the guy gets right down to it and puts his hand on Julien's lap. (i'm convinced it's the same guy from Degrassi who says to Wheels, "nothing wrong with something that feels good!") Starts rubbing Julien's leg and talking about how all he wants to do is suck his dick. Now most of us would have probably felt uncomfortable at this point and asked to get out. But young Julien, perhaps because of the cold, or the drink, just continues to repel his advances, "no i'm ok man....i'm good", until he's made it the majority of the way back to his house. Without a doubt that was one of the best, "morning after a shitshow" stories i've ever heard.

I myself have had a few memorable birthdays. The Canada Day weekend in Ottawa, where young Alex Kitz proved to be the most gracious host of all time, and when we arrived at 9 p.m. on my birthday Friday night, he had bottles of Rye, Vodka, Jager, and Rum, as well as copious amounts of beer and Redbull waiting for us. Not to mention a bag full of fireworks and tickets to a Toronto FC game. Got there at 9, drunk off my ass by 10. Great night! Then there was the time in Australia on my birthday.....actually can't tell that one....X rated! But a great night for sure! And then the best one of all in England, Colin and I an hour or two deep in our bartending shifts, colin says to me, "yo.....it's your birthday!", and i respond, "it is? Oh yeah!" That was a good year. But in fairness to me and my memory, we had joint celebrated his and my birthday a few days before.

So there's a little celebration posting to carry us into the night and the weekend. I for one am not a huge birthday guy, i don't really care, but at the same time it's always a great excuse to hang out with friends and do it up right. If you have an awesome celebration story, then post it as a comment, cause we'd all love to hear it!