27 and Still Bowling

"The closer you get to thirty, the more you wish you were twenty and the more you act like you are forty"

This was an interesting weekend to say the very least. I got to celebrate my 27th birthday and mark my official entry into my late 20's. Its hard to believe I am 27 - its harder to believe that most of my friends are turning 28. I feel like I just left college a couple years ago, now I am just a couple years from my thirties. Fuck me.

In hopes of making this event more memorable, I decided to do ignore the fancy dinner and the clubbing night that I had done in the past. Instead, I planned a night of cheap, greasy food bowling and karaoke. In all, the night was a lot of fun. There was a pretty diverse group of people there - my boys from LA rolled up, and my mom came up as well. Add in the Indian crew, my sister, some random girls that we knew in college, the white boys, and a couple of coworkers into the mix, and I knew we had the making of a fun night.

I arrived to the alley with my roommate, only to find the white boys three drinks in, playing some sort of video game from the 80s. After we got all setup with shoes, we realized bowling sober is completely lame. So we got a couple rounds and then headed to the parking lot where I reconfirmed that free beer always tastes the best and there is nothing like chugging a beer. Feeling a bit buzzed, I tried to bowl. Though the first ball was a gutter, I got my rhythm back and was bowling spares and strikes.

Bowling is a very interesting point. Half of the fun is knocking the balls down, and the other part of is reacting to your shot. Some people crouch on the ground as if they can will the ball back to the center, while others hold their release, while others simply walk back. After the ball hits the pins, you have two options: 1) you can pretend this is the greatest day of your life - jump up and down, high-fives, fist pumps, fake pistols etc - in other words, overreact 2) or you can pretend that you don’t care and just walk away… and if you get a strike, you say "did I get a strike? that’s nice"

I am definitely the first type. No one wants to watch an apathetic bowler. I think we all realize how corny of a sport is, but when you are in it, nothing matters more than picking up that spare.

Anyhow, the highlight of bowling was watching my mom beat all of my friends. This was her first time, so when she got her first strike, the place nearly erupted. People two lanes over were giving her props. The other highlight was watching my boy from LA bowl. Rather than rolling the ball, he would chuck the ball as high as he could down the lane, where it would bounce and then roll to the pins. This was funniest thing ever.

After bowling, we hit up a bar in Japantown, where we met up with more friends. Unfortunately they did not have Jagermesiter, so we ended up taking tequila shots - a lot of them. I don’t remember much, but here is what I heard from friends.

- At karaoke, I started off singing Ricky Martin "She Bang", Oasis "Wonderwall", Madonna "Like a Virgin"
- I kept ducking out of the karoke bar and went to the bar to grab more drinks
- A black guy bought me a shot, even though I was giving him shit for liking the Cowboys
- I almost hooked up with a hooker. She kept buying me shots, and I thought I had developed some resemblance of game. When my friend saw her Mexican pimp across the room, he took me away
- Screaming "You stupid nga" 100 times into the mike
- Karate kicking a street sign and losing, as I ended up with my face on the ground
- Grabbing some random Chinese guy's hat and pretending we were best friends
- The white boys almost went to the ghetto to pick up a fat hooker for me. Thank god someone convinced them not to.

All in all it was a good time. I ended the night the same way I ended most of my birthdays – puking on the street. To be fair, this was self-induced as I did not want a hangover the next day. So I guess I have matured. In order to see what else has changed, I thought it would be interesting to compare myself four years ago (when I first started this job) to myself now.

- Looks: I gained 20 lbs and lost some hair.
- Personal Wealth: My paycheck has increased somewhat, but I still drive the same 98 maxima.
- Roommates: I went from having 3 roommates, to moving home, to having 1, to living by myself to now having 2 . While with this much moving may be a cause for me to upgrade my decorations, I am still rocking the same tupac and scarface posters
- At the clubs: Dancing and freaking girls to gawking
- Clothes: Old Navy / Ross / Macys to BR, Boss and Burberry
- Razor: Mach 3 to the Power Fusion
- Alarm Clock: $4 alarm clock that I have had since college to well the same alarm clock
- Drink of Choice: Godfathers and jack and cokes to single malt scotch and goose and tonic
- Beer of Choice: Bud light to Bud light
- Watch: $100 KC watch to a somewhat different $100 KC watch
- Cologne: Imitation cool water cologne to Ferragamo and Varvatos cologne
- Drinking game: Quarters to Beer bongs and relay boat races
- Food: Only eating chicken to eating most things except beef and lamb
- Underwear: Briefs to boxer briefs
- Magazine: Maxim to Men's Health/ Best Life
- Music: Listening to rap ( Tupac, Dogg pound ) to Postal Service, Sigur Ros
- Strip Clubs: $20 dances to $60 dances (yes!!!)
- Relationships: Having no girlfriend but lots of downlow hookups to no girlfriend and no hookups
- Vacationing: Vegas to Australia and India
- Answering the Phone: "Yo/Suck it EZ" to "This is G"
- Physique: "A" cup to "B" cup…(sad but true)
- Food: Delivery Thai and delivery pizza to 3 course dinners (maybe this explains the weight gain)
- Gym: 24hour to Bay Club
- Wed Night: Going to starlight to watching "Friday Night Lights"
- Friends: "Friends" with every Indian person at Cal to an having an awesome set of loyal, albeit smaller set of friends
- Working out: Twice a week to 5-6 times a week
- Shirts: 1 striped shirt to 15 striped shirts
- Longest Relationship w/ a Female: 2 months to five years (i have been going to same hot german girl to cut my hair)

I guess outside of changes in material possession and looks , I am still the same ole g. I still sag my jeans, will wear the same pair of jeans for a couple weeks, and still rather kick it with my boys than hang with a girl. Don’t get me wrong, there are times I wish I was more suave and had more style. I wish I had a nicer car. I wish I had more female friends that I could ask advice of and who had hot friends. I wish I did not work these many hours.

Despite wanting these things, I am happy where I am , and am OK if these things don’t change in the near future. I am glad that I am still down to earth, have a good set of friends, and still will laugh whenever someone farts.

Further, around this time of the year, I always find myself going through old pictures from college and looking through photos taking the last couple years. There have a lot of fun times and drunken memories. I have also been lucky in that there has been no significant disasters (deaths in the family, etc) as well.

One thing that never changes is that the drama with my car. When I was living in the Richmond, I was averaging a parking ticket every two weeks. When I moved apartments, I had to deal with my car getting broken into 5-6 times a year – I have bought 4 Alpines to date. At one point, I got so sick of the break-ins, I went a month without replacing my radio – there was just a big hole in my console.

Just this weekend, a new drama occurred. I went shopping with my mom and sister to look at the new 3-series. Since I park on the street where there is 2-hour parking, I quickly ran over to check my car. Of course there was a chalk mark on the outside tire, so I wiped it off. I even got in the car moved it up and moved it back so it would like the car had moved.

When I got back, there was a ticket, which I was pissed about. However, on top of that, I got a fine for "erasing the chalk." Besides the fact that I did do this, how the hell do they know I did this? My wheels were clean. Even if the ticketlady remembered my car, I could have gone around the block and parked in the same spot. How the hell does she even catch me? Fuck me.

Enjoy this video of Will Smith singing some Hindi tunes.