Our friend Pat was born on Christmas Eve.  (So was our friend Ashley, but this story is about Pat).  Everyone knows that Christmas babies get gypped a little bit at the holidays- their birthdays get a little lost in the commotion of Christmas and New Year’s and traveling, and everyone else is getting presents too, so people aren’t necessarily paying attention to the presents the birthday boy/girl opens. 

Last Friday some of us thought an impromptu birthday party at The Sandbar would be fun for Pat, a night all his own that wasn’t shared with Santa and church and millions of other kids.  Unfortunately, Pat apparently didn’t think it was such a great idea, as he stayed home and didn’t partake in the festivities. 

But noooooo, that didn’t stop us….

A few years ago, our very artistic friend Michelle created "Pat Heads" for another of Pat’s birthdays.  She took a picture of his face, blew it up, copied it about a hundred times (okay I’m exaggerating, but there were a lot of them), pasted it to a cardboard backer, and glued the face to a stick.  When Pat showed up to the party, there were all these "Pat Heads" on sticks bobbing around the bar.  Over the years, they’ve slowly disappeared.  Someone, and we’ve never figured out who it was, stole one from the bar and took it on their travels with them.  The Sandbar received pictures a few times of a "Pat Head" on a beach, in the city, etc. 

Anyway, there happens to be one Pat Head left at The Sandbar, but it’s missing the face.  It’s just a cardboard shape of his head, which made the night somehow funnier.

Pat experienced lots of adventures on Friday night. He was a mermaid…he drank lots of beers, he fell off his chair.  He played foosball upstairs, and he was buried in the sand. 

All in all, it was a fun birthday celebration. But it would have been even more fun if the birthday boy would have been there for real.