Happy Birthday to Me.

Yesterday was my 26th Birthday. I was sad to put 25 behind me. And even though my roommate Adam and his friend Allan both assured me that this would be a good year (because 26 is an even number) I kind of liked 25.

I get a little weird each year around my birthday. I don't want anyone to make a big deal about it, but, let's face it, it's nice to be remembered. Last year, things got out of hand when I threw myself a party, a friend thought it would be funny to hire a singing telegram dressed as a pink gorilla to come sing Happy Birthday to me. Here's a picture of me looking uncomfortable with the most terrifying gift I've ever received:



My 26th bday went a little more smoothly. I got to work in the morning and was greeted by a large card on my desk that said "Happy Birthday Muffin!" and right next to it was a real muffin and a cup of coffee thanks to a great coworker. Then my cubicle neighbor came in bearing homemade vegan banana bread. It was delicious!

I got a lot of phone calls and emails too--even my big sister (who shares a bday with me) beat me to the punch and called me up. Later that night, a few friends took me out to dinner at my favorite Mediterranean restaurant, Begolyu on 81st and 3rd and then Derek and Adam met up with us at Auction House for drinks. It was such a great day. Thanks friends!

Of course my favorite thing about my bday is that I can usually drag it out for a few days, if not weeks. Bring on the cake!

Pirate Party

I am part of the Fun Committee at work. This means I was elected this year to help plan and organize company parties. Our second party of the year was last Thursday. The theme was Pirates. Kaitlin and I were put in charge of food and drinks and were also charged with writing up a Pirate Quiz that was distributed to the entire company.

The quiz included questions, such as:
-What is the origin of the word "Buccaneer"?
-Describe the Edward Low Flag
-Which of the Pirates of the Carribbean stars would you most likely be stranded on an island with and why? (Please answer in 1 sentence or less. Points for Creativity.)



We also had to look the part. So, Tuesday night, Kaitlin and I left work together to shop. Kaitlin's brilliant idea was to buy white t-shirts and sew stuffed parrots to the shoulders of our shirts. Unfortunately, no stores seemed to carry stuffed parrots. We did find 2 plastic swords for 99 cents though and walked through mid-town Manhattan brandishing them. One man even stopped us and threatened to call Homeland Security.

When we go to Kaitlin's apartment, we had another snafu. With no parrots, we decided the next best thing would be to iron letters onto our t-shirts. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that Kaitlin was out of the letter "a." It felt like Sesame Street gone awry. That meant the conventional pirate sayings and words, like "arrgh" and "pirate" and "walk the plank" or "ahoy" were all out. So we now both own shirts that say "SCURVY" across the front. Kaitlin's says "PEG LEG" on the back and mine says "YO HO HO". All in all, the party was a success. We had loads of Pirate's Booty and made delicious rum punch. And who wouldn't want a SCURVY t-shirt? (See picture.)

Friday Night Adventures in Make Up

I just went onto Joe's blog and found the above picture. This was the beginning of my night on Friday.

Memorial Day Weekend

When I was a kid, the Memorial Day weekend celebration culminated in the town parade. Everyone who was part of any sort of Roxbury organization marched. Following the parade, everyone converged at the cemetery where the guns were shot off to commemorate fallen soldiers and then the whole town would walk over to the Old Fire House to have a picnic of egg salad sandwiches and potato salad. Those were good times.

In more recent years, the parade has become less important to my family; maybe it’s because we stopped joining things. I dropped out of Brownie Troop 242 and once my sister graduated from high school, she was no longer on any local sports teams, so we stopped going all together.

This year my whole family trekked up to Cape Cod and hung out at the beach for the weekend. Although it’s a hike to get up there, the weekend was a lot of fun. One of my roommates came along and my sister brought her friend Fawn. We hung out and ate and went to the beach. In my mind, that’s a pretty perfect way to spend a weekend, including the family bonding time.

The most exciting part for me was Friday night when we arrived. We all had turkey sandwiches and my sister and I finally gave my mom her Mother’s day gift. For our birthdays this year, my parents gave us a bit of money towards taking a trip together. I think they were expecting us to go camping, or maybe to Florida together, but we managed to find a good deal on airfare and take a trip to Italy.

While we were there, we kept a journal, which I typed up and printed out, and my sister put all of our pictures in an album and we finally were able to tell my parents about our trip the week before. I think they appreciated it. Until it came up that my brother bought her a bike. Suck up.

Other than that, it was very laid back, and for me, it was even better than marching in a parade.