{"id":356,"date":"2009-05-08T08:36:07","date_gmt":"2009-05-08T13:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=356"},"modified":"2018-10-31T08:39:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T12:39:12","slug":"the-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=356","title":{"rendered":"The 35"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you read this, I\u2019m drinking heavily in New Orleans with good friends.<\/p>\n

I spent my 27th birthday in New Orleans, so I have this weird desire to sort of retrace my steps.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy enough to do so \u2013 just walk drunk around the Lower Garden District all day, then buy a case of Abita and go back to the hotel room at night.\u00a0 Because I\u2019m that guy.\u00a0 The guy who goes to NOLA and hides from people and goes to bed at 9pm.<\/p>\n


\nMy birthday is the 10th, but I\u2019m scheduling this for the Friday before because my little calendar says May 10th is when \u201cThe Walkers\u201d premieres in the Sunday Archive.\u00a0 Originally titled, for some reason, \u201cHalf Again,\u201d I don\u2019t really remember writing that story, so the next four parts will be a revelation to me, as well!<\/p>\n

In the past, I\u2019ve put up several birthday posts.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the post from last year<\/a>, and I still haven\u2019t gone back to reread the linked 32nd and 31st birthday articles in the super secret tomb<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact\u2026very little has changed since that post last year.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ll be traveling, so my to-do list will be different.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll still be doing those same things, generally speaking.\u00a0 Probably not as much indecent exposure.\u00a0 My Amazon Wishlist<\/a> is much larger, but it\u2019s not about size, it\u2019s about how you use it.<\/p>\n

Actually, I do remember those linked articles.\u00a0 For this one<\/a>, it was the first time I saw my father since he left in 1986.\u00a0 Though I don\u2019t think I mention that.\u00a0 I started reading it and realized that, at 31, I was an idiot.\u00a0 Amazing how much changes in just a few years\u2026 And 31 does feel like a lifetime ago.\u00a0 Hell, 33 feels like a lifetime ago.<\/p>\n

This may well be a year of healing, though.\u00a0 I feel that in the air.\u00a0 A sense of renewal, the hope of connection.\u00a0 Clearing out the baked-on grime of the last 35 years.\u00a0 It\u2019s two years since my cure, and high time I changed my way of thinking.\u00a0 No more hiding, no more darkness.<\/p>\n

And no more struggling with forgiveness and my place in life.\u00a0 Fuck the people who fucked me over these last few years\u2026hell, my whole life.\u00a0 The friends who stole money, the lovers who cheated on me, the parents who left me\u2026 Fuck you all.\u00a0 I refuse to make peace with your evil.\u00a0 You\u2019re symptoms of some illness that kept me kowtowing to mania and psychosis.\u00a0 That illness is gone.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to start living this life the right way, without regard for the naysayers and the liars and the cheats and the fucking horde of idiots who darken all my doorways.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it!\u00a0 I\u2019m going to go clean up my Facebook friends list and drink vodka!\u00a0 Oh my god!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you read this, I\u2019m drinking heavily in New Orleans with good friends. I spent my 27th birthday in New Orleans, so I have this weird desire to sort of retrace my steps.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy enough to do so \u2013 …<\/p>\n

The 35<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","tag-birthday-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":908,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}