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My Birthday (finally!)

This afternoon I had planned on (finally) writing about my birthday. I was in a great mood and I planned out everything that I was going to say. Then for whatever reason it was I got in a rotten mood and to top it all off, I drove carpool and there was major flooding on the roads and sach hakol to drive Gila's school carpool and Ezra's choir carpool took me 2 hours. I was in the car that whole time.

So, now I will try to talk about my birthday even though I am still not in a great mood. Hopefully writing this will put me in a better mood.

I have been hesitant to write about the great day that was my birthday. I have two reasons for this. First, because I don't think I can do the celebration justice. I loved every minute of it and I don't know if I will describe it well enough. The second reason is that for whatever reasons they were, some of my friends were either overlooked or never called for the celebration. When you hear about the celebration you will know it wasn't my fault (because I obviously had nothing to do with it), but nevertheless, I have been consumed with guilt about the matter.

So, Greg and I went to New York for two days. We left two days before my birthday and we came home on my birthday. You can read Greg's version of the trip here- he included all the major celebrity sightings and the main events in his post. We stayed in Greg's brother's apartment in TriBeCa (he was on tour at the time) which to me is the BEST LOCATION EVER. If you don't want to do touristy stuff around NY, TriBeCa or the West Village are my choices for great places to be. The neighborhoods are quaint, calm, and cool (much cooler than I am) and being the new New Yorker that I like to think I am (or want to be), it is nice that these places aren't swarming with touristy type folk.

As with all our good vacations, the advantage of staying in Benj's apartment (besides the obvious not having to pay any money and having a nice place of our own) is that he has two REALLY nice TV's- Two being the operative word, with digital cable. Ah, what could be better than not spending quality time with one's spouse when on vacation.

We did some fun stuff including going to see the Colbert Report, getting coffee (how I wish we could have gotten cupcakes) in the newly famous Magnolia Bakery (Yay for Bleecker Street!), visiting with our friends Esther, Sara, Gil, and Nina, Seeing day to day New York life and where some of our friends work (shoutout to shoenet.com,Mr. Joe's shoes- I think, and TV Guide), shopping at Century 21, walking up and down Bleecker Street, up and down Bleecker Street and up and down Bleecker street (you had to be there). All in all it was a great few days.

On the last morning that we were there, my cell phone rang and Greg answered it. Two things to note. 1. My cell phone picks up noise very well and any bystander can hear whatever the person on the other end of the phone is saying 2. My mother doesn't always use a quiet inside voice when talking on the phone. In any event, I heard my mother say to Greg, "So are you guys going to take the train we wanted you to take later?" To most people that might seem like my mother was concerned about picking us up on time. Not to me, I heard what she said and I thought to myself, "shoot, someone is making me a party." Before you go think that I was jumping to conclusions you should know that I figured out what day I was getting engaged to Greg because there were extra bottles of soda in our downstairs fridge. For some reason, I am observant like that. As soon as Greg heard my mother say this and saw my reaction,he hung up the phone and said, "sometimes I can't stand your mother." (sorry, Ma). I looked at him questioningly and he responded, "just forget you heard anything."

We spent the rest of the day walking around the village. I alternated between trying valiantly not to think about Greg's conversation with my mother or thoughts on an impending party (which, since my sister had a 3oth birthday party, I told anyone who would listen that I DID NOT WANT) and between trying to walk around on the world's largest toe blister and not scream in agony every time I took a step.

Our New York trip sadly had to end and we took the train back to Baltimore.

To Be Continued.
Next time: The celebration to end all celebrations

Posted by peninah at November 16, 2006 07:21 PM | TrackBack