Birth-Day Flashback

This year for Brad's birthday, we decided to not only celebrate the anniversary of his date of birth, but to truly remember his actual birth day. So last night, as Brad was turning 26 years old, we stepped right back into the glorious decade in which he was born. The 80's.

Let me go ahead and warn you, now, that viewing some of these photos may trigger your gag reflex. Read and view at your own risk.

Brad thrift-store-hopped to find us some sufficiently atrocious clothing (he succeeded), and Emily teased and sprayed my hair until it defied gravity in order to really bring us back in time. A dozen of our friends joined us as we reminisced of the glory days (of which we, honestly, barely remember). We created the setting with decorations of Care Bears, Garfield, and various records of period hits.

Our 80's activities began with the Funfetti birthday cake that boasted the vibrant colors that were so embraced during our youth. With Footloose playing in the background, we played Totally 80's Trivial Pursuit, boys against girls. Or should I say the Care Bear against the Trapper Keeper? Since all of us (but a couple of old guys) were born in the 80's, the questions were nearly impossible. I won't even go into the stressful drama of me accidentally giving the boys Cyndi Lauper, or of me totally knowing it was Billy Idol, but second guessing myself and blowing the answer. Man, it got pretty intense. Suffice it to say, the boys ended up coming out with the win. But I don't want to talk about that, seeing as how I basically handed it to them, anyway. (So it really hardly counts, boys!)

We also watched the Super Bowl Shuffle from the 1985 Chicago Bears on good ol' VHS. Just fyi, it is totally lame. I was embarrassed for them. How in the world did this grip a nation? The boys played some Atari as we jammed to some 80's tunes on cassette. At one point, I realized that the music stopped. When I asked Brad what happened to it, he matter-of-factly explained to me that he had to rewind the tape. Rewind.the.tape. Whoa. I forgot "rewind" ever even existed.

A few other friends also dressed up for the occasion! (Despite the fact that the theme was really short notice.) However, Brad happened to be the only boy brave enough to go there. Here is Audrey, Emily, Brad, Heather, and me all sportin' the decade of the night.

The cool girls, holding Tommy Tutone's record of 867-5309, Jenny.

There has been a birthday explosion in our group, and we had all of the birthday people get together for a big photo. All of their birthdays were either last week or are this week. Talk about party time!

There were more people there too, but in my excitement of all things 80's, I failed to get a true group picture of everybody, including the undressed up ones. But if you still want to check out the rest of the pictures from the party, go right ahead!

*Special thanks to my work friend, Bryan, for totally providing us with all of the rad games and 80's memorabilia! I guess that's what happens when you're actually old enough to have truly lived during the 80's!

I've always really thought I was an 80's child. I mean, after all, I was born in the 80's, and so was Brad. However, I do believe that a single night of trying to relive the era forced me to realize that I have no real idea of anything about the 80's, at all. I have superimposed my memories of 90's events and Saved by the Bell episodes into the 80's and relied a little too heavily on VH1's I Love the 80's series. Oh well. The mystery made it even more fun. And it also helped us to still feel young. I mean, c'mon, we don't even remember the 80's. What are we? Like babies or something?