I’m shameless about a lot of stuff, but there are only three things that I’m so shameless about that if it weren’t me doing whatever it was, I’d pants me just to teach me a lesson. Those three things are:
– Self-promotion
– Abusing any opportunity for free booze
– Alerting the world when it’s my birthday
Funny I should mention that, because today is my birthday. And if I weren’t already wretchedly hungover from the free booze from last night, I’d be out tracking down some free booze right now. As it is, I’m working and admiring how effing good I look for a 37 year old guy who gets negligible exercise and hasn’t seen the inside of a dentist’s office for over four years.
Speaking of free booze… If an open bar and saving orphans are things that you can get excited about, then here’s your chance to indulge in both simultaneously. Next Generation Nepal a charity aimed at rescuing displaced Nepalese children run by my hilarious travel blogging accomplice Conor Grennan, is having a fundraising drunken melee in New York City on June 21st. Admission is $50 per drunkard, after that it’s on brother. Open bar, conga lines, naked break dancing, you name it.
Actually, open bar notwithstanding, there’s some serious fundraising to be done. Remember, the drunker you get the more you’re likely to rashly bid when they auction off the rights to pick me up at JFK and drive me across Brooklyn when I swing through town later this summer. Yes, it’s true, I won’t be at the party, but I’ll be doing my part to help. I got me a whole bottle of vodka here, so at least I can be embarrassingly drunk at the party in spirit.
If time, space and the elements is keeping you from attending the party as well, there’s always the donation button at the bottom of the NGN main page. If you’re as bummed about missing the party as I am, donate $42 on the web site and then buy yourself a bottle of wine with the other $8. Everyone wins.
And if you aren’t reading it already, Conor’s blog is pretty funny, even when he’s reuniting displaced children with their parents and fall-down tired because an insomniac neighborhood monkey is having a love affair with his doorbell.
Today’s mine!
Happy birthday mate.
Natal Day Greetings! Enjoy.
Cento di questi giorni, caro amico! ( a hundred of these days, although why anybody would want to live to 100 plus…. anyway, that is what italians say
Ewww, TMI on the dental info….:)
Happy Birthday!!! And although I cant make it to NYC to get drunk, I will definately check out the charity.
http://outremer.romeochi.net/2007/06/12/romania-blogging-heaven/
If you know of a blogger consistently funnier than yourself, please correct me.
Happy Birthday!
And we knew you before you became the next Bill Bryson.
Many happy returns.
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I don’t know what these comments are in reference to and since they don’t touch on the subjects of how funny I am or how good I look for being a 37 year old geezer, I’m editing them.
Leif
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[START EDIT BY LEIF]
I don’t know what these comments are in reference to and since they don’t touch on the subjects of how funny I am or how good I look for being a 37 year old geezer, I’m editing them.
Leif
[END EDIT BY LEIF]
[START EDIT BY LEIF]
I don’t know what these comments are in reference to and since they don’t touch on the subjects of how funny I am or how good I look for being a 37 year old geezer, I’m editing them.
Leif
[END EDIT BY LEIF]
Dear Leif,
You are very funny and, from your words, you don’t sound like a bourgeois. A bourgeois is somebody who, as soon as he can put the money together, buys himself a SUV or an Alfa Romeo, trying to make mr.next door die of envy. A bourgeois is somebody who buy costly, flashy clothes, forgetting that the children need a correct alimentation amd medical check ups. If you came to work in Italy, which is the only country in the UE that allows anybody to come and work there( they call us the push overs of the UE), although we have so much unemployment, you would not go back home and speak ill of the Italians. You would do like the Italians do, first think about your family, buy an apartment, take care of the health of your family with a good alimentation and right medicaments in case of need and last, if you can afford it, buy yourself a car. I could not buy a car, let alone a SUV, although I have been working for 30 years, because my priorities are different from other people’s and I am sure your priorities are the same as mine: you would not feed your children onions and bread, so that you can buy a flashy car and wear flashy clothes. Not everybody is rich in Italy, as I am sure you know very well, even though in this blog we pretend they are, and for the non rich the priorities are different than those of other nationalities.
Print this letter, please. You are extremely good looking, funny and a good catch for the right woman. What else can I say? If you are willing, say the word, I will divorce my husband, who is old anyway, and marry you. It takes only 15 days to get a divorce in romania
Thanks all for the birthday wishes. I didn’t get to enjoy it for long, I started working on the afternoon of my b-day and have been going at it pretty much non-stop since.
Gemma – I’m not much of the home wreaker type. Maybe a dirty weekend in Chisinau? And I am on the same page with you on the materialism. I was into a mild form of it when I owned a home and had a real job. Nothing spectacular (I had an economy car and a pretty pathetic wardrobe), but the makings of it was there. In retrospect keeping tabs on all that stuff was such a pain in the ass. If I can swing it, I’d like to never own a car again. Talk about a distraction, especially in Minnesota where the snow requires you to move your car every 12 hours all winter or you get towed!
But perhaps you’ve noticed the sudden increase in materialism in Romania? Since personal loans became possible suddenly there’s fashion and 300 euro cell phones and non-Dacia cars everywhere! The change in only three years is shocking. I’m afraid we Americans are teaching people to live beyond their means. Italy is similar. You must admit that the attention to clothing, accessories, cars/motorcycles is pretty ridiculous. Obviously these are mostly young people without families to worry about, but I wonder if this generation will follow their parents and eventually spend their money on more important things? Bread and onion sandwiches become tiring very quickly…