The Best Birthday Ever

In order to describe my best birthday ever, I need to give a little background in order for you to understand why it was such a big deal for me. I grew up in a very little town in Upstate New York, near Lake Ontario. After graduating high school, I moved with my parents to New Jersey. I lived in New Jersey for over three years before my best birthday occurred.

My twenty-first birthday fell on a Sunday. I will be forever grateful that it didn’t fall on a Friday since my birth date is September 13th. For my birthday, my parents gifted me with two plane tickets for my friends to fly down and visit for the weekend. They also bought tickets for all of us (my parents, my friends, and me) to see the New York Yankees on my birthday.

The plan was for my two best friends, Becky and Liz, to fly down on Friday, September 11th, 1998 and spend the weekend with us and fly back on Monday, September 14th. Unfortunately, the plan did not go exactly as planned. About a week before they were supposed to leave, Liz found out that she had a test on the day she was supposed to fly down. There was no way she could take the test and get to the airport on time. She asked the professor if she could take the test early but the professor refused.

I was certain my birthday was ruined. Liz and I were the best of friends, we had met my senior year and just instantly clicked, I couldn’t imagine celebrating a milestone like twenty-one without her. Becky and I had been friends longer and were close but it wouldn’t be the same without them both there.

After numerous phone calls, it was decided that we would go ahead with the plan with one small change, another friend from high school, Annie, would take Liz’s tickets. We called the airline and explained that we needed to change the name on one of the tickets and we were all set.

Despite Liz not being there, I was determined to have a good birthday. After the girls flew in Friday night, we went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant, The Outback. Despite being a steakhouse, I knew there would be food there that we would all like. We had a good time at dinner, catching up on things and discussing what we would do for the rest of the weekend.

On Saturday, we got up and after getting ready, we drove over to Somerville, a near-by town to go shopping. The downtown streets are full of older buildings and antique stores. There are also used bookstores that we enjoyed browsing in. We spent an enjoyable day there, eating at a barbeque restaurant that was a popular hang-out. That evening we sacked out on the floor in the den and watched movies.

Sunday morning dawned clear and bright. Today was the big day. Mom insisted that we go to church before the game so we all drove over to the church my grandparents’ attend. After church and lunch at Wendy’s, we drove into the city.

Now I go into the city frequently but I refuse to drive there. My parents though did not want to take the train like I normally did. Part of the reason for that was Becky is wheelchair bound due to being born with spinal bifida; the train would be difficult for her to maneuver with the wheelchair.

The Yankees were on pace that year to win the most games ever and we were all hoping for a good game. When we got to the stadium, we discovered that our seats were in the first row of the loge section (the only people closer are the field boxes for season ticket holders) and just to the right of home plate. Our view of first base wasn’t great but we could easily see the rest of the field.

Annie and I spent the pre-game leaning over the rail in front of us and discussing the different players and who was at what position. We also spent time explaining to Becky what was going on since she hadn’t watched baseball much. I was excited to see that David Cone, one of the pitchers I most liked, was pitching.

The only disappointing part of the day was the Yankees lost. It was a good game though, until the end very close and the pitching match-up was quite good. My parents bought me a new hat to replace the one I had worn to the game. My old hat had been purchased when I was in grade school and was quite beat-up. I was happy to exchange it for the new hat with Derek Jeter’s number on it.

That evening we watched more videos and gabbed. I still had to go to work the next morning so we didn’t stay up too late. I said good-bye to my friends in the morning and went on to work.

This was the best birthday because I got to see two of my friends, who hadn’t been to New Jersey to visit me before, and we got to go to the Yankee game. All in all it was an awesome weekend.

Won second place in the

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Thank you very much, Mel .