The One With All The Birthday Shenanigans

I’m not big on birthdays, or making big birthday plans because people tend to flake. Especially after last year’s plans where about 90% of the people who said they would come out didn’t show up without even a message, I was worried about this year’s shenanigans.

Over the last year, I’ve been lucky enough to have really good friends who are local enter in to my life. Despite my issues, they’ve been there and when I was planning my birthday dinner, I knew that they would be the ones who would actually show up.

They didn’t disappoint.

This past weekend was full of lots of booze, amazing food, and of course, lots of laughter. Because my friends are the best.

Friday night, I kicked of the weekend at Kelly’s Irish Times to see Chris’ band Brains of J play.  If you’re a Pearl Jam fan in the DC area, you should check them out! I thought that it would be an early night, but I didn’t get home until 3 am after some last minute shenanigans that led me to a fun couple hours filled with dancing! I wasn’t prepared to go dancing so my feet didn’t really appreciate what I put them through in heels since I didn’t have my flats with me.

Saturday, I rested up in the morning before heading to VA for a baby shower. I always feel super awkward at baby showers, especially when I don’t know anyone except for the Mother-to-Be. I’m glad I went on Saturday because it was good to see my friend, and ya know, have an excuse to shop for ridiculously cute baby clothes.

After the baby shower, I went home to do a little writing and relaxing before the planned birthday shenanigans. We had dinner reservations at 8:30 at Zola, a restaurant I hadn’t yet tried out so I was really excited. The drinks were delicious (I stuck to the Zola which consisted of vodka, white cranberry, triple sec, and fresh lime.) We got the Lobster Mac & Cheese and the truffle fries for everyone at the table to share. (Ohmygod, so good).  For the entree, Andrew & I went with the Natural Beef Burger which was delicious!  At the end of the dinner, the boys ended up standing at the bar, watching the last few minutes of the basketball game (I already forgot which one it was) before we headed out to Iron Horse to continue the shenanigans. As we left Zola, I stopped a stranger and asked him to take a picture of the group outside of the restaurant.

The rest of the night contained more drinking, laughter and lots of ridiculousness.

The following morning, Andrew & I met Keri Kae and Nicole (my DC besties) for my birthday brunch at Vinoteca, one of my favorite brunch places in the city.  Our server was Jonathan who is officially my favorite. The food was delicious as always and there were a lot of mimosas. A LOT. It wasn’t a 6 hour brunch like last year at Urbana but between Saturday night’s shenanigans and the 3 hour brunch this past Sunday, I’d have to say brunch is starting to become one of my favorite things. Especially with ridiculous friends that I love dearly.

We rounded out this awesome weekend with a dinner at Clyde’s with my brother and cousin, which was an awesome surprise.

On top of the awesome company, all the laughter and ALL THE FOOD, I got text messages from friends I hadn’t talked to in a while.

So thank you to my wonderful friends who made this birthday one to remember. Thank you for not letting me down and restoring my faith in real friendships.

Thank you to Andrew for being such a good support as the only person who’s not really involved with anything social media/interwebs/twitter as we all started to ramble about all things social media/interwebs/twitter at times throughout the night.  Even more thanks to him for taking care of me after the cab reeking of cigarette Saturday night got me sick. Oh, let’s not forget about how he got me Happy Feet Two on DVD for my birthday.

Because, you know, it wouldn’t be a birthday without my Penguin Posse!

So 27, you got off to a pretty fantastic start. Let’s make this year one worthy of its beginning.