Here it is, kids -- I turned the Big 2-4 at 1:43 AM this morning. And, as I type this, I continue to be twenty-four-years-old.Quite the mind job.
I tend to begrudge all birthdays. I like to lie low on the radar for the most part and avoid contact with the same people who want to celebrate my birth....? Yeah, I am a strange one like that.
It's not so much the getting older I mind. It's inevitable, so it's best not to fight it. The part I dislike is the whole rotating thought process I come across:
What have I accomplished in the past year? What is it I want? What has stopped me from attaining these goals? How will I know when I've found success?
In essence, I spend a few days agonizing over one thing: relevance. Am I relevant? Have a earned this new year of life, or did I waste the previous ones?
Not the healthiest birthday activity, I realize. Most folks in their twenties celebrate with friends, food, and endless strings of shots and pints.
I debate the existential.
And, I also take myself out to a mindless action flick for kicks.
I started that last tradition in May 2009 as an off-the-cuff, knee-jerkish reaction. I was alone on May 16th. Friends were overseas, out of town, or hectic with their schedules. The Moffatt clan were focused on lil' Brother's band and a gig of theirs at a local club and I was frustrated with them speeding through all birthday celebrations just to watch a band we've seen and heard about one trillion times (in public and from our basement).
Rambles, yes. So, I took myself out to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I was gifted with an action film and a potent bit of eye candy in the form of Lynn Collins as Kayla Silverfox. What started as a hurt, isolated gesture turned out to be a fun experience and an oddly liberating one, too.
This time around, I knew I was headed out for adventure. The Losers is still in theatres and I knew I had to celebrate the start of a new year with the ever-gorgeous, brutal beauty that is Zoe Saldana.
She kicked much ass, indeed. Granted, the film offered standard action film devices and villains and one-liners and explosions. But, see, that's the great part of the annual birthday action flick -- it's a time to shut the mind off and look at the pretty flames (and the pretty girls when they're on screen, guns blazin'.)
I am rather amazed with the stamina of the characters in The Losers. I mean, characters were shot in the arm or cut across major muscle groups, and yet, the fighting continued. Chris Evans' character gets shot at close range in the shoulder and he's scaling shipping crates and barbed wire fences in the next scene. Right on.
The Sister took me out to breakfast this morning at a local joint. I picked it out because the interior reminds me of Der Waffle Haus from Dead Like Me. It's not a dead ringer for the set, there's just something about the vibe of the place that matches. I half expect to hear the gang swearing and squabbling with each other as I take in a delicious Eggs Benedict each time I visit the place...
(L-R): Mandy Patinkin as Rube and Ellen Muth as Georgia "George" Lass in Dead Like Me
So, a rather sweet start to the 24th year, I do believe. And, I just heard the front door slam which means I have falafel waiting for me.
I best get myself in on that action.
