Butch Leiber's World

This year I celebrated my second Facebook birthday. Starting a week before my birthday people from my life began to call, email, text, and post wonderful birthday wishes to my Facebook page. It’s humbling and incredibly fulfilling to get wishes from people I hardly see or talk to from all over the world. Facebook has forever changed the way we celebrate our birthdays.
I wasn’t too thrilled to celebrate this year – forty seven years old may be a minor accomplishment but not one I was keen to celebrate. So, I made no special plans, and in the past, the day could have passed with only my parents and brother and sister remembering my birthday. But there it is, on Facebook for all to see- “Wish Butch a Happy Birthday – Click here!” It’s simple and takes seconds. From time to time even I click to wish people a happy birthday. It’s a ten second feel good. But on this end, as my email began to fill with wishes I got a little teary… and grateful… and humbled.
I know amazing people all over the globe. Some I know well, some we’ve met, shared a moment and moved on. Some I know from my youth, from high school, from random cruises, Landmark, Landmark cruises, someone I met sitting next to me eating sushi in Tempe, former co-workers, spouses of former co-workers, former lovers, hook-ups and potential future lovers (or hook-ups) and other assorted extraordinary human beings. And many took the ten second feel good moment to think about me. But put all of those together and it made for a wonderful day in my world.
My birthday did begin in a surreal fashion. I worked until midnight so headed to the bar to usher in my new year. I picked up a friend on the way and met two others at the bar. One of them picked up someone else at the bar and the five of us sat around drinking. I realized of the five people I’d be spending my birthday with, I had know one of them for just under a year, one for just around two months and two for minutes. We were having fun chatting and drinking and then the strippers showed up. It must have been a slow night at the Cabaret down the street and they came around looking for potential customers. There were none to be found with us but that didn’t stop them from trying. When Dallan, yes Dallan, found out it was my birthday, he and Rocky ripped off their shirts (moment here to catch my breath – Dallas was amazing) and gave me a short lap dance. Thank god the bar was empty and I was very uncomfortable but it was a surreal moment… particularly when Rocky playfully bit me on the shoulder. My birthday was starting out beautifully – me at the center of attention of a bunch of handsome men – I hope that bodes well for the whole year!
We all (except for the strippers) ended up at Denny’s sharing my free GrandSlam Breakfast. You can order four items and there were five of us so I ordered my own Pancake Puppies (See my Nov 19th Posting) and Mike 1 had hash browns, Mike 2 had bacon, Daniel had pancakes and Bobby had the eggs. Everyone was happy. It had the making of a great birthday. There’s an x-rated ending to the story but we’ll pass on re-telling that here.
Last night I concluded my birthday week celebration and again the evening started with a stripper. Rigel invited himself to join Mike and I for happy hour and regaled us with stories of his physical, um, long-comings and his wild life and his new reality show that will make him famous and rich. He was the most interesting person I’ve ever met in a bar. I know he was out “promoting” for business for the strip club down the street but I hope this kid makes it. He had a great sense of ambition and purpose for someone, who, if you believe the story has spent a third of his life in jail, has two kids and a promise from VH1 to make him a star.
We’re now Facebook friends. Perhaps I’ll send him good wishes on his birthday next year.