happy birthday to everyone

April seems like an appropriate month to celebrate all birthdays, right? Birthdays from December, January, February, March...it makes sense. Or at least it does to the head honchos at DMH. This past weekend we celebrated two birthdays, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. For their birthdays, the residents get to go out to eat at a location of their choosing. Everyone in the house also gets to go. I must have looked hungry or in need of a good party because I am now the appointed celebrant. Which means I get scheduled for 3pm-11pm shifts, round everyone up, stick them in a fifteen passanger van, and head out for a night of mayhem. Literally. While Saturday was a seemingly flawless evening, probably because we ordered carryout, Sunday was far from flawless.

On Sunday I loaded up the van and pulled out my mapquest directions and headed to Egypt. Ok, not Egypt, but close. They inisted on going to Hibachi Grill (which to my suprise was not even close to an Asian restaurant, but more like a Country Buffet) at Eastpoint Mall, which is not even in Baltimore. At least not in the city. It took about 45 minutes to get there. Not to mention this was my first time taking the van out for more than a few miles. It was either too hot, too cold, the music wasn't on loud enough, I was going the wrong way, I was hitting too many bumbs, etc., etc., etc. Then of course I had my own worries to deal with. Like the fact that the way I went seemed to be either completely deserted, have crime tape surrounding it, or a cemetery. It could have been mistaken for a horror movie. Luckily we arrived at our destination, made our way inside, waited in line, dodged people carrying trays of food and sat down. Everyone made their way around the buffet picking out what they wanted, I waited forever to get the blind man his steak and mashed potatoes (because of course the only two things he wanted had run out just before I got there). Then, after settling into my seat ready to eat I spilled my drink, of course it had to be me. The waitress seemed very confused as to what you do in the event of a spilled drink, so I cleaned it up myself until she came back with a new chair. I'm still unsure how a new chair was supposed to help in the cleaning process, but I thanked her anyway. After what seemed like an eternity we got out of that place. As we were getting in the car, one of the residents felt it was apropriate to get sick on the sidewalk and then throw some napkins on top of it and walk away...so I dealt with that, and then finally got the heck out of there. Of course I was intstructed to take a different way back by my backseat drivers, which I agreed to, only to go about ten miles out of the way...though I'm pretty sure that was my fault entirely. Luckily, we made it back, and now we can all laugh about it. Eventually.

Tonight I am taking them out for another birthday celebration. This time to Chili's, which is only a few miles away. Thank goodness! Then some time next week we are going to Olive Garden for another birthday. So, even if all else fails, I'll have unlimited breadsticks.