Day in the Life: Best Birthday Ever?

So a while back, when I realized my birthday, April 19, fell on a Tuesday in 2011, I was kinda bummed. Not only was it going to be a weekday birthday - it was on a Tuesday. Nobody wants to celebrate in any real way on a mid-week basis. Additionally, my sole night class of the semester is Tuesday nights, so I knew rather than go out and spend time with friends, I'd be taking notes and clock-watching.

Thanks, Gabe.

Then I learned Portal 2's projected release date. And all was right with the world.

In case you guys haven't figured it out by now, I'm a bit of a Valve fangirl. The original Portal was my first foray into a Valve game and into Xbox360 gaming as a whole. Now I have a stuffed headcrab on my television, use L4D and L4D2 as stress-relief zombie-choppers, dressed up as the TF2 Scout for a con, and did my final project for a gaming and culture class on Half Life 2.

Portal may be one of the shortest and most self-contained of Valve's games, but thinking with portals has always hooked my interest and bent my brain in a totally unique way. I've been anticipating a sequel since the moment I liberated Chell from the guts of GLaDOS's chamber, nearly four years ago. I was so worried the release date might get moved (Valve time operating on something of a glacial scale and all), but Gabe was true to his word; thus, I spent the first minutes of being 24 filing into Gamestop, receipt in hand, ready to claim the copy Randy had reserved and paid off as a birthday gift (thanks, baby!).

I couldn't dive in as deeply as I wanted, seeing as I work this morning, but I managed to log a couple hours of gametime. Within 15 minutes, I was cracking up laughing, wide-eyed in amazement, and guilt-tripped so hard I might've become Catholic. GLaDOS's passive-aggressive hate has gone to staggering new levels, and I cannot wait to see what that mad construct throws at me next.

So, from the bottom of my heart: thank you, Valve, and thank you, Gabe. You guys gave me the perfect birthday gift. Now - let's discuss me seeing Half Life 3 by the time I'm 25, hmm?