Lower Depth

(the present in motion)

Last night was not Matt's birthday. Which was why he was so surprised that it was the night of his birthday party. And why we were so surprised that Matt was not more perceptive-- he had no qualms about the 10 or so people that followed him home from church. He thought they were all "going to dinner". It was probably just as well because most of his other friends- those who were waiting in the apartment- weren't ready to yell "Surprise." In our defense, the conversation was enthralling.

Because young (OK, old) Matt became obsessed with fishing out his neighbor's friend's phone that dropped down the chimney a few weeks ago, we got him a present that would further the project: 5 broomsticks and two rolls of duct tape. Little did we know that halfway through the evening, Megan would drop her sunglasses on the roof of a shorter building next door. This gave a giddy Matt (and a few other boys at the party) the perfect excuse to grab his presents. Megan kept protesting that she was fine with losing the sunglasses but Ashley set her straight. "This isn't about you, Megan" he explained, "just let us do this." And so they tried. But we appeared to be just a couple of feet too short. So Matt decided to hop over the roof railing and see if he could lower himself down farther, prompting concerned cries from all over the rooftop ("It's just another year!" Patrick had cried, and then suggested we lower Helsinki down the side- a motion I heartily seconded). In the end, the sunglasses was miraculously retrieved (as in- I have no idea how it happened- as in, I had lost interest by then and moved on to other things at the party), despite all of us making it very clear to Matt that he was not to jump down to the neighboring roof. And a happy birthday was had by all. But mostly Matt.

(risking his life for shades)