I recently turnedthe big 4-0. The birthday was in Ramadan so we held off on any really celebrations until afterwards. This past Saturday (10/3) my brother Tariq and my good friend Faiyaz took me out.
Tariq, Faiyaz and I went to Morton's Steakhouse (Schaumburg) for dinner. The bread, the butter, the salad! The chocolate lava cake ala mode! Oh my! It was all good**.
We took our time at dinner. The conversation was excellent. It was a lot more relaxed than anything I can recall as of late. We talked politics and there may have been some religion too but there were healthy portions of football and a bunch of quick trips down memory lane to the more carefree days.
We left Morton's and headed over to Fumare (a hookah lounge in Schaumburg)(I highly recommend this place - the people there are great and the atmosphere is excellent). Tariq stopped off to grab some cigars so Faiyaz and I met up with him at Fumare.
When Faiyaz and I arrived at Fumare we were pleasantly surprised to see our fellow lawyer buddy Nizam Arain at Fumare. He was setting up to perform later in the evening. Nizam is in a band called The Major Majors.
The band has three members. I know the drummer - Imran Husain - as well. I can't remember the name of the guy who is lead vocals for the band.
My childhood friend Khalid joined us shortly after we got to Fumare. Khalid couldn't handle the 5pm dinner time - he's just a few weeks younger than me chronologically but he's much more hip and cool and can't begin a night quite so early. He called it "grandparents time". Whatever dude. I call it "I've got 4 kids and I get tired by 10 time" (although this night I was able to stay alert until past 11pm).
Anyhow, what was originally going to be a private gathering among a few close friends turned into a bigger party. Over the course of the evening we ran into a lot of people - some were real "blast from the past" types including one guy whom I remember from MCC summer camp in the mid-1980s. That's nearly a quarter of a century ago.
One guy who showed up way late - too late to be considered a part of the birthday celebration - was my buddy Haroon. He's an old friend and a neighbor and our kids are friends now but I'm going to call him out - he blew me off so he could go to a lame eid party with his wife. The only reason he made it to Fumare at 11pm was to see Nizam's band. The fact that we were there gave him a reason to claim he was part of the birthday celebration. Thanks man!
We enjoyed Nizam and Imran's band performance. The cigars were good. the double apple hookah was good too. The company was the best.
We talked about plans for hanging out more often, catching some Bulls and Bears games and maybe taking a trip somewhere to celebration the next man up for the big 4-0. And of course we took a bunch of goofy pictures so that I could have proof that I was actually out and about and that I still had a few friends!
Thanks guys!
The evening was organized and planned by my younger brother Tariq. As always, Tariq came through to make sure I had fun. Thanks T!
And thanks to everyone else who came out and made it a lot of fun!
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**The steak was outstanding too.
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