Weekend Recap: Partying In NYC, Fake Thanksgiving & More...

This past weekend was crazy for me. On top of my normal weekend rituals (Grocery shopping) I had other super fun things sprinkled in and here is a mini recap of all of that stuff...

Saturday night I went into New York City for Day, Toni, Amanda & Alana's joint 'Fab Four' birthday party at The Empire Hotel Rooftop Bar. And can I tell you, it was amazing. We drank overpriced drinks ($15.00 for a fucking amaretto sour, not cool but whatever), danced and had a ball all while looking fabulous (Phil told us we all looked like we were going to a sexy funeral because we all happened to be wearing black dresses). It was the best night out I've had in a while and we had to unfortunately cut it short (2:00ish) because Erin and I took the LIRR instead of driving in or getting a hotel room like some of the others.

Sunday was fake Thanksgiving at my uncle's house (Which was my reason for leaving early from the party). About thirty people came over to celebrate Thanksgiving early with and for my aunt who has cancer. It was really nice. My cousins worked really hard to put together a beautiful meal and it was just so great to see all of these people come to spend time with my aunt.

After fake Thanksgiving was over and all of the random guests left, I hung out with my sister, her boyfriend and our cousins. We drank, ate some more and played way too many rounds of Cards Against Humanity (Which I highly recommend if you're a terrible person, like myself). We seriously played and hung out until after midnight.

Monday (I had a long weekend), I slept in and then spent the rest of the day hanging out with my cousins; dropping people off at the airport, going to see Thor: The Dark World (2013), having super later dinner and ending the night watching Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (2013).

So yeah, I had this really busy and fun weekend (And I forgot to take pictures).

Birthday Party Recap...

Yesterday was my birthday party and I had an amazing time. I invited a bunch of my friends (Seventeen to be exact) to hang out with me in NYC, do a little day drinking and have some fun.

I didn't really have any set plans for the day, I just had three main birthday wishes that I wanted met. Aside from them, we played everything else by ear.

My Birthday Party Wishes...

1. Have pizza from Artichoke ← I actually had pizza from there twice during the day
2. Sing a Spice Girls song at karaoke ← We sang "Spice Up Your Life"
3. Be drunk at midnight in the City ← This didn't happen but I didn't actually care

So basically the day went as follows... Justin and I got into the City around 1:00pm and headed to Greenwich Village to start the day off. He and I had lunch at Artichoke and when we were done we walked next door to Off The Wagon to get the party started.

Eventually other people started trickling in. We played beer pong, ate bar food, hung out, got into arguments with stupid chicks that don't understand the rules of beer pong, etc. until we decided that we were gonna move on to the next bar, but not before hitting up Artichoke for some more pizza.

After the pizza we headed over to 3 Sheets Saloon for $3.00 shots and when we had our fill of Cafe Patron shots & Buttery Nipples we walked to Karaoke Boho to get our bad karaoke on -- Oh, was it bad... Right before we got there I started loosing my voice, so I could not sing but I tried and had a ball. We sang for a while and decided that it was time to go home after awhile.

It was a really fun birthday celebration and I couldn't have asked for a better time.

Doll Party...

Today was Justin's sister's 7th birthday party. So Justin and I spent the day at his mother's house helping them get ready for the party (I made several dozen cake pops/cake balls) and helping them once it started.

It was doll themed (It was all American Girl® crap, but since those dolls are flipping expensive they called it a doll party because we didn't know if all the girls had their own. Justin's sister has a few, we actually gave her the 2011 limited edition Kanani doll as a present before her party started), so all of the guest brought over their favorite doll and they got to make gingerbread houses, tutus, crowns and bags all for their dolls. The girls had their own table and so did their dolls. The party seemed to go over well. I think all of the kids enjoyed themselves, I know his sisters had fun.

I'm glad it's over. I don't have to help with another kiddie birthday party set up until next September. Yay!

Holiday Party...

Tonight my whole family went to my father's work holiday party (I had gone with my father last year and I had made the mistake of telling my mother and my sister how much fun it was, so they all wanted to go too. My father was so good. He found people to take my sister and I as their guests so that we could all go). It was a lot of fun. We ate, drank, hung out, danced, etc. It was a really nice night out.

Off Duty Librarian's Weekend...

This was the first full weekend I've had off in a few weeks and I had a lot of things to do in it. Here is what I did...

Saturday: I slept in until about 10:00am, got up and proceeded to get ready for the various events I had to attend throughout the course of the day. Once I was dolled up I headed over to Justin's apartment so that we could get some lunch and then head over to his cousin's house for her graduation party.

The graduation party was painfully boring. Not one conversation had throughout the course of the party could make up for how much it sucked, there was no music or anything, etc. Even the fact that "Favorite Volunteer #2" was there could make up for how much that party blew, and he typically amuses me whenever he is around -- If you're wonder, he was there because they were each others prom dates.

After suffering through a brief period of time at the party (We only stayed two hours) we headed over to our friend's house so we could go into New York City and go to Eataly. As soon as we got to their house we were thrown into yet another family party. But unlike the other one it didn't suck. We hung around the house for about an hour before finally leaving.

Walking into Eataly we were all slapped in the face with total sensory overload. It was glorious. It was filled with so many things we didn't know where to go first or what to look at (I actually lost Justin on more than one occasion because there were so many places to go and tons of people there). Eventually we made our way to La Piazza after making a reservation to go to the rooftop bar Birreria. At La Piazza we waited around until we could sneak over to a table to sample various Italian meats, cheeses and wine -- It was all awesome. I obviously didn't eat the meat, but everyone else said it was great.

When we finished up our wine and cheese my friend mentioned gelato and Justin got super excited, so we headed over to the Gelateria and got the best gelato I've ever had (And I had gelato in Italy). We went and had espresso, bought some food to bring home and eventually we got a text message saying our table was ready at Birreria. By the time we got the text we were all full, but we had to head to the roof to check out the bar. The boys had a few drinks, my friend's girlfriend and I soaked up the atmosphere and then we eventually left.

If you have a chance to visit Eataly I would totally recommend it.

Sunday: Justin and I slept in, got up, blah blah blah... After doing various morning/afternoon routines we decided to take the food we bought the night before and have a picnic at one of the local parks. We went, had a nice lunch, went to the batting cages, etc. It was a fun afternoon.

After leaving the park we went to the cemetery where my grandparents are buried so that I could plant new flowers -- The flowers that I had planted in previous years were recently killed when they had to dig up a near by grave to bury someone, because they threw the dirt on my grandparent's grave. I planted the new flowers, had a conversation with my grandmother and headed over to visit some of Justin's relatives that are buried there also.

Eventually we headed back to Justin's apartment where I ended up passing out during the Mets game. When I woke up I decided to go home because I promised Erin and Nicole we all watch the season premiere of True Blood -- Which was awesome.

I did a lot more than I had been doing in previous weekends and I had a great time. Next weekend in Fourth of July weekend and I've got a bunch of things planned for that. I'll let you all know how that goes.