Birthday Recap

The day of my birth turned out to be quite an event!

12:01am
Look across my table at The Cove (which was indeed the site of Colleen & my surprise party rather than a Z-Girl meeting), catch Colleen's eye, and say, just a little tipsy, "Think we should go home soon since we gotta go out again tomorrow night?"

1:00am
Email the boss that I'll be taking a vacation day.

8:00am
Get awoken by the monkeys who have forgotten it is my birthday (too busy counting the days til theirs). They make up for it by rushing into the dining room to make me two very excellent birthday cards featuring all of my favorite Ben 10 characters.

10:00am
Drop the kids off at school. Time it just right to spy on Jiro in yoga class. By far the cutest thing I have EVER seen.

11:30am
Meet my twin sister and my mother at Tsunami for lunch. (Colleen is working, but seems much more bright-eyed than me. Must be the 5 year difference in our ages!) Mmmmmm...curry shrimp special.

12:45pm
Get a haircut. Am accompanied by my sister who has agreed to spend the afternoon shopping with me. (Colleen informed me at lunch she was going to dress up for our double date forcing me to look for something cute to wear.)

1:45pm
First stop Tear It Up in Cooper-Young. Tracey buys shoes. I buy red and white striped socks. (Not for my evening out.)

2:15pm
Flashback on Central. I try on a lot of truly hysterical outfits but buy nothing.

2:45pm
Tracey convinces me to make my first ever foray into Simply 6 on Poplar. She buys a slutty shirt. (On purpose.)

3:15pm
Old Navy. I really am starting to hate Old Navy. I inevitably leave the women's section and start gathering items to buy Satchel, but stop myself. Buy Tracey another slutty shirt as her official birthday gift.

3:45pm
Ross Dress for Less. Now this is a store I love. Tracey and I each try on about eight dresses, which is pretty hilarious. I actually find one I like. (I also consider stealing a pair of very cool striped socks from the Gap that someone has somehow managed to leave in my dressing room. Gross, I know, but they are exactly like my current favorite pair of socks purchased at the Gap many months ago. Tracey says, "Someone else's feet were in them," which convinces me it is a bad idea.)

4:30pm
Drop Tracey off.

4:45pm
Pick up the monkeys.

5:00pm
Go home to discover that Warren has bought me the most fabulous vaccuum in the whole world.

5:15
Fashion crisis. I hate the dress I just bought. All of Warren's shirts are either too big, too loud, or missing a button.

6:00pm
Arrive at Colleen & Ben's 30 minutes late, but no worries. The monkeys join Ian, Ayden and Miss Sarah in the upstairs playroom and forget we exist. The four of us drink a bottle of champagne in the kitchen while Colleen makes corn on the cob for the kids.

6:30pm
Leave for Bari and decide to skip the movie at MCA which starts in 30 minutes.

7:00pm
OH MY GOD I PUT A BABY OCTOPUS IN MY MOUTH AND CHEWED IT UP EVEN THOUGH ALL I COULD THINK ABOUT WAS BRAINS!.

8:00pm
Head to Umai for the BEST sushi EVER. Seriously. Ken (the owner/chef) resisted putting sushi on the menu for months, but oh my god it was worth the wait! (I've literally been thinking about it non-stop since Friday.) I pretend to not know the waiter who has been "dating" my sister even though he clearly knows who I am since he keeps calling me "Mrs. Greenberg." Ben asks the waiter about his bandaged finger and we are treated to a tale of a sharp knife and a slip of the hand. Next we get to see a camera phone picture of finger innards. However, not even this can take away from the magnificence that is the sushi! (I remember a really good Japanese beer being on tap, but I have no idea which one.)

9:30pm
At long last I make it to Mollie Fontaine's and the power is on! Despite having a reservation, the tables are full. We head to the bar upstairs and decide to set up camp. Finally get to try the avocado tempura (yum) and also nibble on some garlic shrimp, calamari, and the cotija cheese encrusted corn I have come to love at Las Tortugas. While we are eating the entire second floor erupts into house music and Colleen & I can't help noticing that we are the only two women anywhere in sight.

11:00pm
Fuller and drunker than I ever thought I could be, I discuss dessert options with the gang.

11:30pm
Return to Colleen & Ben's to find two very happy monkeys and leave very happy myself. We all agree to do this more often.

11:59pm
Crawl into bed (I have to work in less than eight hours) and marvel at the fact that Warren and the boys are eating hot dogs in the kitchen.

Midnight
Pray to baby Jesus that I will not puke up the baby octopus I ate at Bari.