"Birthday" doesn't sound right... maybe Birthweek

OH.
MY.
GOD.


People.  I think I have just now recovered from my birthday.  It was a dousie!  And so fantastic!  But now that I can sit upright and keep my eyes open for more than 20 minutes at a time, I am able to tell you about it.  Hold onto your hats, kids!  It's going to be a bumpy ride! (<-- Said like the shrunken heads in Harry Potter)

OK, so the weekend started with Gia's arrival on Friday afternoon.  She met me for lunch, and even brought BEAUTIFUL Crumb's Cupcakes!  She decided on Cookies N' Cream and Red Velvet.  I am very pleased with her decision.  Friday was Gia's actual birthday, but she likes to say she doesn't really celebrate it.  Okey dokey, Gia... I'll celebrate for you!  And so I did.

Due to a dress debacle that includes a dress that cost $16, a zipper addition that costs $65, and a dress that STILL DOESN'T FIT RIGHT... I had to do some shopping.  So Gia and I headed to Old Navy after work and before my cousin Michael and his boyfriend Charlie arrived.  I was looking for a cute little dress that could be paired with leggings and boots.  What I found was a sweater dress, a pair of skinny jeans, two t-shirts and a pair of earrings.  Awesome. 

We headed to Penn Station to pick up Michael and Charlie, dropped their stuff off at home and headed to the Half King.  If you are ever in NYC, please Please PLEASE stop by The Half King!  You can read about it here.  They have absolutely fantastic food!  You will love whatever you order... I suggest the Jalapeno Poppers.  The are about 3 inches long, stuffed with cream cheese and fried.  Ho-Ly-God.

Here is (from left to right) Gia, Dwayne, Michael and me at the Half King.  It's a bit dark, but my friend Mike is behind us standing at the computer... he's kind of the best server/bartender ever :)  So there was lots of whiskey , but also lots of food which kept the evening on the light side.  But really a great start to the weekend.  My friend John, who is the Doggy Daddy of THIS little beauty, also stopped by.  When we got home, we got to see that adorable little puppy all curled up on my couch and so we decided to hang out with her until 5am.

5
A
M
People.

And that's when things got a little nutty.

Saturday we slept in until 11, which is really still only 6 hours of sleep.  We had pancakes and bacon, got ready to go and headed to Soho!! SOHO!!!!

Generally speaking I hate going to Soho.  I LOVE that shopping, but my GOD the tourists!  You can hardly move and shopping is more of a fight for survival than a fun, relaxing, leisurely activity.  This time was different.  Charlie was giddy with excitement and could barely contain himself.  So what did we do?  We fed him Starbucks.  Because we are the crazy.  We went to Club Monaco, Hugo Boss, Armani Exchange...

This is me walking into Armani Exchange.  Can we talk about all that hair?!  I should really get that cut.  But anyway... I fell head-over-heels in love with just about everything in this store.  2 different dresses caught my eye, a pair of sunglasses, some shoes and a bag.  And I only allowed myself to go about half way into the store because I knew I wasn't ready to spend that kind of money.  Maybe by the end of the summer I can treat myself... we'll see :)

I did grab myself a t-shirt dress and white v-neck sweater at Uniqulo.  You may not have heard of this place.  You should educate yourself here.  I also cleaned up at Duane Reade and even scored myself their Urban Luggage "green" tote.

I did something while shopping that I have never done before.  I didn't try anything on that I bought.  Not one thing.  This goes against everything that I know about shopping.  No dressing rooms?  No poor lighting to make you go "hmmm... will this look better if I walk outside?  Or is it really that bad?".  No getting sweaty or static-y pulling clothes on and off.  No messed up hair from the multiple changes.  No flimsy curtains to act as doors, thus exposing your rump to half of New York.  It was glorious and exhilarating!  You wanna know something else?

EVERYTHING FIT!  Like a glove!  Like it was made for me!  I think I may have found a whole new outlook on life along the way!

So then Gia's friends met up with us, and the 3 of them went out to dinner.  Michael, Charlie and I headed home for me to make them a delish meal of pasta and meat sauce (I'm such a good hostess.) and then THEY headed off for the theater!  They saw Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

It's a drag show musical... and they LOVED it!  They had been considering checking out the Black Party.  But decided that since you probably should be all E'd up, it wasn't really their thing.  If you don't know what the Black Party is... go ask your parents.  If they don't know, then just leave it alone.

So I got dressed in my new T-shirt dress, and Alice came over and we left for the bars.  I started off at CheapShots at St. Marks Place.

CheapShots is a dive bar and it is AWESOME!  It's cash only and the sign is not actually visible and so I just describe it as the scary looking bar between the Liquors sign and the Laundromat sign.  But seriously?  This is a legit bar!  There's always a ton of people there, the service is good, and every hour they do a random shot for a dollar.

There was lots of whiskey.
Again.

My favorite shot will probably always be the Washington Apple Shot.  To enjoy one for yourself:

Equal Parts:

Crown Royal Whiskey
Apple Pucker
Cranberry Juice

You can add a splash of Sprite, but it's not necessary. 

Shake and pour.

It tastes like you are biting into a crisp red deliscious apple.  Seriously!  Try it!

So we got a pretty good crowd going and everybody was getting pretty tipsy, so we decided to head over to Solas.  And this is where I stop remembering things, Haha... ha... yeah...

Things I do remember:
Guy in a wheelchair ROCKIN on the dancefloor
Impressing Alice with my ability to rap all the lyrics to Big Pimpin
Impressing the DJ with my knowledge of BPMs
Telling the bartender about  my birthday last year at Solas which I swear he was there but he says no.  I think he's lying.  He still liked the story and bought me a drink for it.

Now here are some pictures that I don't recall taking.

Me and Andrew Demers.  Demers.  The valedictorian from my high school graduating class.  Dude is AWESOME!

Me and Natalie... please tell me she doesn't actually look scared... because I look drunk...

Look at Tara!  She looks horrified!  And Miranda is texting... but Natalie and I are having a BALL!

This I have a vague memory of. I must have danced off some of the alcohol.  Left to right is Alice, Demers, Michael, me and Natalie.. Miranda is in the front.  Miranda is my hight, don't let her fool you.

I kind of remember hailing a cab after this... Michael said I wasn't doing a good job.  It's not my fault!  Cabbies won't unlock their doors until you tell them where you're going, and I was too drunk to figure it all out!  I tried saying "Long Island City!" and then just telling them to unlock the door before I would tell them and neither worked.  Finally I got one.  Geez.

I bought everybody sandwiches since NOBODY would let me pay for drinks or the cab (Thanks guys, but you are ridiculous!)  I don't remember eating the sandwich really, or putting myself to bed.  I do remember waking up at 9:30 on Sunday and realizing I was still drunk.  Well yay.  I am classy.

I slept a bit more, and when Michael and Charlie came in to say goodbye, I was dead in the middle of hangover-ville.  I slept until 2. 2!  geez!  So did Gia though, so it's ok.

We grabbed Blockheads, a GREAT Burrito place.  I decided against the frozen margarita ($3 margarita, add $1 for flavor.  Or $6 for a "grande".  You will leave hammered.)  for obvious reasons.  Alice joined us which was wonderful :).  Then we all headed over to Chelsea Market (FINALLY!  I've been meaning to get over there for weeks.  It's a sad state of affairs in my little life.) and got this adorable little diary/journal from Anthropology, along with some more decorating ideas.  I fell in love with this chandeleir that was brassy with flowers.  Absolutely beautiful.  Damn the economy and my lack of $700!  I wanted that so bad!  But the journal will do :)

Alice and Gia were both impressed with my Manhattan Fruit Exchange.  I say that like it's mine, like I'm the only one that has ever found it.  I'm crazy.

And then we went and met up with Alice's friends from home at a little bar called Ninth Ward which was super cool!  The whole thing looks kind of like a castle, and has really low lighting.  I just loved it.  But again, no booze.  I opted for fried pickles and Beignets.  They were yummy!

And then Gia went home, and I crashed... and have been crashing all week long.  I can barely pull myself out of bed in the morning, I've been going to bed earlier and earlier and the gym did NOT happen. 

Monday night (my actual birthday, but the day that Miranda decided to celebrate her birthday) I headed over to Agozar for drinks and food.  Check them out, they are fantastic, friendly and not at all expensive for the flavor filled food you get to experience!  They have specials just about every day of the week!  Anyway, I went with the expectation that I would go, buy Miranda a drink, have a drink myself and maybe get an appetizer.  Then I'd head home.

Please tell me how I ended up having 2 drinks, 3 shots, 2 appetizers and 2 desserts?  AND HOW NOBODY WOULD LET ME PAY AGAIN?!?!

I have the best friends ever.

Today I could probably make it to the gym.  I got up and showered and to work early, thank GOD!  But I need to go home and get the place together because my new bed is being delivered tomorrow!  Woohoo!  Can't wait!  But I don't want some stranger seeing the mess I am currently living in.  Geez! Expect the beginnings of a DIY post early next week!

Just a couple of housekeeping things right quick before I let you go...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
(most of the universe)

Gia, Bill, Katie, Miranda, Manny, Mr. Nye, Handley aaaaaaaaand... about a million more people that I can't remember right now but I wish you the best anyway!

Also,

Amy over at Amalah.com is going through a bit of a rough time right now, so I want her to know my thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.  Stop by and leave her some support.  She likes that and could use some about now.

And now I'm going back to expense reports!  yay!  Have a great weekend, everybody!



By the way.  I mentioned a LOT of people and companies in this blog.  I will absolutely accept coupons, vouchers, gift certificates and cold hard cash for these and future mentions.  I'm just sayin.