Turning 30--A Tale of Miscommunication, Soft Bumpers and an Out-of-Body Experience

Old.  Yes, old.  But you're not going to hear me bitching about it.  (at least not right now)  It's inevetable and happens to everyone at the exact same point in life.  Why gripe?

Instead, I'll pass along 3 stories--all happened on that fateful day...

Miscommunication

So, I got a really nice card from Mark and Candice on my birthday.  Candice was even nice enough to follow it up with a cute eCard.  So, when I saw Mark calling that afternoon, I figured I was in for some light-hearted ribbing about my advanced age and soon-to-be dependence on adult diapers...

Mark: I heard you dinged 30 today!  ("ding" being the WoW term for leveling-up)

Me: Yep, the big three-oh.

Mark: 'Grats man.

Me: Thanks.

Mark: So, I was talking to Brian (a guy from our WoW group) today and he told me to call you a douche.

Me:  Cool.  Cool.  Any particular reason I'm a douche?

Mark: Yeah, he was kinda pissed you dinged 30 because now we can't get into the battlegrounds and we're all going to have to level up some more before we can get into the next one.

Me:  Um, Mark, I "dinged" 30 in real life.  Today's my 30th birthday.

Mark: (silence)

Me:  (uncontrollable laughter)

Soft Bumpers

So, that evening I was supposed to join some friends for dinner.  But I'd been feeling a bit sick all day, so I decided to bail and just hang at the house.

So, on the drive home, the roads were a bit wet from light drizzle over the previous hour.  So when a cop tried to cross the street with his lights on and I had to hit the brakes hard not to hit him, the guy behind me slid right into my bumper.

No big deal--nobody was hurt or had any major damage.  But that means my car's in the shop again.

An Out-of-Body Experience

In order to get my 3rd Class Medical Certificate, I had to get a bunch of paperwork from the hospital in Tulsa.  Included in that was a copy of my operative report.  Basically, this is the dictation from the surgeon of what was happening in surgery.

It's not overly gory or anything--in fact I didn't understand much of the lingo until I looked it up.  But what I did understand made it a very errie read.

I read about how I was laid-out on the table.  I read about how he cut into me.  I read about how he removed some organs, repaired them and put them back in.

It was very, very strange.  I imagine that it's a little like what amnesia feel like.