Laser tag is a standard in any nerd’s repertoire and, therefore, always a diversion I welcome. That goes double if the celebration of my birthday is in question.

Jason planned a great geeky gathering for my birthday this year: a 2 hour outdoor game of laser tag featuring a couple dozen of our friends. Awesome! He doesn’t deserve all the credit for this unique and nerdy idea though. A couple months ago one of our friends celebrated his birthday in a similar manner and Jason and I had such a great time crawling through the bushes and firing on our buddies that he thought my birthday would be a great excuse to do it all over again. He was correct.

We held the party at Mt. Timpanogos Park with the games starting just as it was getting dark. The park cleared out shortly after night set in and we soon had the entire area to ourselves. I’m certain that that desertion had nothing to do with park goers feeling like they were getting swarmed by an armed nerd herd.

It turned out to be the perfect evening for our tactical operations. A nice breeze, along with the thick layers of sweat covering our poorly conditioned bodies, kept us cool as we attempted to regain some of our youthful magnificence.

I may be growing another year older but hiding behind rocks and sprinting across the grass made me feel a lot like a little kid playing kick the can in the warm summer twilight. There’s nothing like a little nostalgic childhood regression to counteract the effects of time.

Many thanks to all the friends who eagerly let go of any semblance of maturity and embraced the pain of unwanted exercise for the glory of the game. The night just wouldn’t have been the same without you as a target.