Down memory lane...

Sunday being GameBoy's birthday, he invited, like, 300 of his closest friends and classmates down to celebrate at a venue so '80s retro that I temporarily lost track of myself in the space-time continuum.

For a while, I thought I was in the grocery store in my old neighborhood in Houston, sometime between 1982 and 1986. I was playing Galaga, a shoot-'em-up space invaders-like video arcade, and my cocker spaniel was tied up out front. I'm pretty sure there was a half-eaten Butterfinger or Baby Ruth (my favorite candy bars) on the console.

If it hadn't been for S2 squealing every so often when I narrowly evaded death, I might have made the time travel complete. But her giggling every time I blew up brought me back to the present. (As did my low scores -- even though I secured the No. 2 spot on my final game of the evening.)

Even though S2 was not an arcade girl herself growing up (and thus was not able to release any excess stress by pounding the shit out of the firing button, as I did), she was having flashbacks of her own.

It was the music. There was a great DJ pumping out everything from the English Beat to Depeche Mode to Nina Whatsername of "99 Luft Balloons" fame to Madonna. There should have been dancing, but perhaps that just hadn't gotten started yet.

This little gem -- it's called Ground Kontrol -- is a temple to two things the '80s held dear: video arcades and music. But now that we're in our 30s and all, instead of jacking ourselves up on RC Cola and Red Vines, we were taking swigs of beer.

It's amazing how many memories that place evoked for me. Good thing I was around people I know in my current life. I could have easily become lost in my old one.