My thirty-first birthday was this past Friday, so I did what every other Long Islander would do and celebrated my birth for a whole weekend (Mainly thanks to Day who put together the most amazing weekend for me). And I started my birthday weekend off by having all you can eat sushi with my family, followed by a super yummy tres leche cake.
Not that all you can eat sushi with my family wasn't great but the real birthday festivities began on Saturday. And it started with me meeting up with Day and Toni at Toni's house. Where I was greeted with middle school style balloons (Which I did bring into the city with me and back to Long Island at the end of the weekend) and Day mixing drinks in dollar store sippy cups for the train ride into the city.
After a mimosa or two, Toni's husband drove us to the train station and we hopped on the LIRR. On the train we sipped on our drinks and watched the stops to make sure my sister caught the same train as us once her stop rolled around.
We found my sister, made friends with the conductor who told Day she was a hot mess, drank out of our sippy cups, did shots of Fireball, etc. until we got to our destination.
Once we got into the city we popped on the taxi line outside of Penn Station and took a taxi to Chinatown to Hotel Mulberry, where Day booked us a room for the night.
After checking in, settling into the room, getting some dollar dumplings from some little hole in the wall around the corner from the hotel and finding Liz, the five of us wandered around Mott Street looking for something to eat. We ended up at
Ajisen Ramen where we pigged out on kani salad and big bowls of ramen.
Once the five of us had our fill of ramen we went back to the hotel to start getting ready for the actual festivities planned for the evening. When we got back my sister realized that she forgot the pair of leggings she wanted to wear back on Long Island, so she and Liz got an Uber and went in search of leggings for her tiny human self. And while they were on their mission Day, Toni and I started getting ready and pre-gaming.
Eventually Phil and Rob showed up and joined in on the consumption of Fireball, cheap vodka and champagne, as well as started a Missy Elliot dance party (Which mainly consisted of Phil dancing in the corner). And at some point during all of this my sister and Liz made their way back to the hotel with a pair of leggings.
So the whole time this is going on Day and Toni keep telling me that we're waiting on Amanda to show up so we can head over to
M1-5, the bar/lounge we were going to for the night. At some point Toni says she is gonna go downstairs to see if the vending machine has any good snacks and a couple of minutes go by and there is a knock on the door. Day tells me it's probably Toni or Amanda and that I should go open the door. So I go to open the door and waiting on the other side is not Toni or Amanda, it's Chas who decided to fly to New York and surprise me for my birthday.
All I could do was scream and hugging her -- Which was caught from various angles on various social media platforms.
Once I got over the shock of her showing up and she said hello to everyone else, she changed and we headed over to
M1-5 where Amanda, her boyfriend, Lisa and Andrew were waiting for us.
When we were all finally together our hostess got us our table and then people started buying me drinks, we started dancing and I eventually got really drunk (Toni said I tried to drink all the alcohol in Manhattan).
After hours of partying we eventually got an Uber and headed back towards the hotel. Instead of going straight to the hotel we decided to try and see if the dollar dumping place was open. It was not. Then we went to a karaoke bar near the hotel. We sat down for all of two seconds when Day told us we needed to leave. Apparently they told Day it was fifteen dollars per person if we weren't drink, so Day said screw that and we finally headed to the hotel.
Once we got to the room someone ordered us some Dominos, which I didn't get to eat because I was drunk on the floor. Then we had a noise complaint filed against us so Day got sassy with the person at the desk. And we eventually all fell asleep with Lord of the Rings (2001) playing in the background.
Fast forward to the next morning... I was beyond hungover and basically spent the morning throwing up. Which led to us cancelling our brunch plans. So we just headed back to Long Island to Toni's house to hang out and that led to an impromptu Fat Kid Sunday dinner which was so great.
We all just listened to bad early 2000's music, cooked, bullshitted, played games, etc. Until everyone was tired. At that point Chas came with me to my apartment where we played video games, watched the first episode of Love (2016 - Present) and just talked until we decided we should go to sleep.
The next day we got up earlier than we both would have liked to and met Day, Toni and a few of the kids at a diner for breakfast.
When we were done I drove Day back to her apartment so she could pack for her trip to Puerto Rico, then Chas and I went to the mall for an afternoon of unnecessary shopping (There were Pokemon hats, expensive loose leaf tea, makeup, etc. purchased).
At some point Day texted us so we decided to head back to her place. When we got there she and Erin were drinking wine on her bed and watching Fuller House (2016 - Present). So the four of us BS'ed for a while until I had to leave to head over to Alana and Allie's new apartment for a smudging session, homemade birthday dinner and ice cream with candles in it and a fork to eat it with. Which was the best way to end my birthday weekend.
Honestly I cannot express how amazing my friends are and how grateful I am for all of them. They made my thirty-first birthday the best birthday ever. I love them so much and am truly #blessed to have such amazing, caring and giving people in my life. I can't wait for their birthdays to roll around so I can try to make theirs as special as they have made mine.
