Posted on 08/20/2005 2:07:15 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Amid the listings on Madison Stuff Exchange, a Web site run by the city to keep things from reaching landfills, are offers to give away a skateboard ramp, a cast-iron bathtub and a photocopying machine.
Bicycles, basement freezers, piles of wood chips and futon frames - all of these things have escaped the junk heap by being traded on the site's listings.
But now someone who first used the Stuff Exchange to collect huge 1970s satellite dishes for an art project is hoping the site can salvage his 35th birthday this weekend.
Craig, a Memorial High School graduate, said over the phone Thursday that as his Aug. 22 birthday again approached, "I was thinking I'd probably wind up doing the same stuff I do every year, which is pretty much nothing."
"And, you know, that just sort of sat in my brain for a while," he said, adding that suddenly an idea struck him that he did not want to throw away. "I thought, 'Hey, why don't I see if anyone wants to throw me a party?"
After about a week of considering all the ways in which the idea was weird, he decided on a Friday night after work to try it out anyway.
Under the heading "Wanted: Someone to throw me a birthday party," he tells readers at www.Madisonstuffexchange.com that he is not a "Quasimodo with no friends who lives in his parents' basement and avoids the light of day."
Rather, he said he owns a house in Monona and works at a Madison theater. "The thing is, over the years most of my friends have either moved away or gone and gotten married and are now too busy living the married life or raising a family," he wrote in his post. "If you're a single person in your mid 30s I'm sure you know what I mean."
He wrote that he'd like to share some birthday cake with some people, rather than spend the night as he has in the past "by myself, eating sushi and watching a movie."
Craig said he hasn't told anyone he knows about the listing, and for now he requested that his last name not be published.
"I wanted it to be with strangers. I wanted it to be someone who wants to do this just for the sake of doing it, to do something that's just sort of off the wall," he said.
To take him up on the birthday party, he directed people to a $9.95 auction on eBay, which he said would act as an efficient and anonymous way to settle who would throw the party. He said the $10 would cover what he figured the cake would cost, and he wouldn't keep any of the money.
But the auction ended late Friday with no bids. People wrote to him asking for a picture, or his address so that they might send a card. Another suggested that he should just make a friend, possibly at church. His hope now rests in someone writing to his e-mail address, cchnogo99@yahoo.com, posted at Madison Stuff Exchange.
"I have stressed that this is not a date. I'm not looking to hook up. The whole purpose is just to do something a little bit wild or different."
"Hopefully, there are some people out there like me," he said. "I'll take anyone who kind of gets the idea."
Although his birthday is Monday, he wrote in the posting that he hopes to celebrate Sunday night instead.
"I actually have to work all day that day," he wrote of his birthday on Monday. Craig added that he's "not looking for a huge shindig."
"All I'm really hoping for is a few people and a little slice of birthday cake. That's it."
When he talked about deciding to go ahead with the listing, he said that "you've got to take some chances, you've got to try different things. It's the only way you're going to break out of your routine. So I did it."
"If it doesn't work, it's no loss. At least I tried," he said, answering the question of what he'd do if there isn't a party. "I'll probably just ... I don't know. I haven't decided what I'll do yet. Something."
A 35 yr old man with no friends is kinda scary...he's had plenty of time doncha know.
Pathetic doesn't even come close to touching this. Seriously.
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