Earlier this week, September 9, I celebrated my 54th birthday. Generally it was a rather ordinary day with a few exceptions.
I talked about "Dancing With The Stars" and KFC founder Colonel Sanders' grave on a local radio station; "rented" out a theater to watch a 20 year old movie; and I got a few really cool gifts.
Now here are the details.
I got up early on my birthday, for the 3rd Tuesday in a row, I got up and went to visit a friend of mine from the radio business. His name is Tony Rose and he is the host of a morning drive radio show. I'll explain the details of how I know him in a future post.
I spent a couple of hours watching him behind the station's control board entertaining his listeners, playing music, and discuss up coming events with his in-studio guests .
I also got in on the on-the-air discussions about the topics of the day. Among them were the start of the next season of "Dancing With The Stars" and Tony's story about the time he accidentally spit on the statue near the grave of Colonel Harland Sanders. We talked about "the Colonel" because his birthday (when he was alive of course) was that day too.
I also learned that actor Hugh Grant was born in London, England, on the exact same day as I was, Friday September 9, 1960.
At 9 o'clock Tony's show ended so I headed to my next destination. Before I left Bowling Green I went to Target to see if they had any new or unique Lego products.
A lot of times the store has polybags of small models that you can't find anywhere else. I didn't find anything I just "had to have."
About 10 o'clock I headed down I-65 toward Nashville. I was going to the Opry Mills Mall for a couple of reasons.
My #2 all-time favorite dramatic movie, Forrest Gump, was playing at the Regal I-Max theater for a 1-week limited engagement. I wanted to see it in the theater again.
From the few number of cars in the parking and people I saw when I walked into the mall, I could tell that this was a very slow day there. That would be a very important factor in my memorable birthday movie experience.
I was a little earlier than I like to be for a movie but I bought my ticket anyway. I got my popcorn and soda then took the elevator to the 2nd floor of the I-Max theater. I was the first one in there with about 35 minutes before the feature started. After about 10 minutes of sitting there, I decided to make this video. My Point Of Vue: I-Max Movie Theater
I didn't shoot a "part 2" to that video as I mentioned but it turned out as I had predicted. The movie was shown just for me.
Now I've been in a movie theater by myself several times over the years but this was probably the most unique of all of them.
I don't know how much it usually costs to rent out the entire Opry Mills I-Max theater on any other day; but on my 54th birthday the price was $8. I had a "free ticket" coupon for a regular movie that got me half off the I-Max ticket.
After the movie was over it was time to do the 2nd thing I wanted to do at the mall on my birthday.
After a short drive around the mall to an entrance closer to where I wanted to go, I walked through the food court and headed toward the Lego store.
What could be better than being in my favorite store on my birthday? I had a valid reason to buy whatever I wanted. Sky's the limit right? Not in this case. While I was there to buy something for my birthday I had to hold back. The UPS driver had already dropped off my "big" birthday gift at my house the week before. More on that later.
As a rule, right now I am doing my best to not make any major Lego purchases until I put together the kits I already have. But I wanted to get a little something while I was there.
After looking around a while I decided on this:
I think it's cool. I will post pictures of the actual model once I put it together.
After my Lego store purchase, I had one more stop before heading back home. I went to the Disney Outlet store.
My main reason for going there was to see if I could find anything that would make my granddaughter smile. But as I always do, I had to see if there were any cool Goofy t-shirts. Luckily I found one. Here's what the design looks like:
After a brief stop in the food court to pick up a cheese steak to go for lunch; I got back on the highway and headed for Kentucky.
The rest of my birthday was rather ordinary. After Paula got home from work (she offered to take me out to dinner but I decided that wasn't necessary given that she had worked all day) and we had eaten dinner, I had some delicious soft serve ice cream from the Carvel store.
Overall, I had a good birthday. I got to do what I wanted to do and had a unique experience that I'll remember for a long time. My favorite part was spending just a normal night at home with my beautiful wife.
Before I conclude this rather birthday post let me share with you a couple of the things I got as gifts from my friends and family.
My good friends, Mark & Patty, gave me a Lego gift card. I didn't have it with me when I went to the mall because they ordered it from the Lego.com website. It came in the mail the day after my birthday. But that's okay. With the "free shipping" code I have I'll be able to get something I want sent directly to my house.
I also have the promise of a "choose what you want" Lego store experience from James, Brandi, and Aria, the next time we are at the Opry Mills mall together.
Michael and Heather gave me the gift pictured below. It's something that's special because it's Dory is one of my favorite Disney characters. I'm sure it will be on the Disney side of my den once I get it to the point where I can set out all my stuff.
My sister-in-law, Theresa, took the time to go to the grand opening of a local outlet store, earlier this year, stand in line, and get me this special autograph.
Not only is Jim Bunning a former senator from Kentucky and a Hall of Famer he represents a bit more to me. Back in early 1970s when I first started liking baseball, and the Phillies were my favorite team, he was one of the organization's icons. His autograph is something I never would have gotten on my own but it's much appreciated.
Finally, the "big" birthday gift from my wife I mentioned earlier is this:
It's a concert ukulele, which is bigger than the soprano model I've been using. It also has an electronic pick up which means I can plug it into an amplifier when I play in public. That's something I plan on doing more of in the future.
So there you have a review of what my birthday was like this year. As I end my 54th year and start my 55th, I am looking to make it one that will be a difference maker for me. I'm going to do that in a very specific way. But more on that in one of my next few posts.
Thanks for coming back to the blog and thanks to all who helped make my birthday one to remember.
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