birthday bonanza, part 1

oh, birthdays.

here we find ourselves, celebrating 27. and it’s the NINTH year i’ve celebrated a birthday weekend with my lovely dearest AS. happy birthday, steelie! here she is friday night, at bleu evolution up in washington heights, also known as The Other Side of the World. she had a tiramisu. with a candle. when we talked to the wait staff and asked them to hook us up for her birthday, he said, “oh! for the lady in red?” the next night, I had no such waiter clamoring to give me tiramisu. but I did have a case of champagne, 30 champagne glasses, a bunch of sliced strawberries and a couple of good friends to help me celebrate. due to much drama with a craptastic landlord and a whole lot of craptasticness, we had a change of venue from tribeca to a little hole in the wall in billyburg. this was actually an ingenious idea cooked up after midnight on thursday, when i had finally calmed down from the craptasticness and C, Y and i were sitting around Y's apartment deep into a bottle of rioja. actually, C and i were. Y was asleep in my lap. but C, who suddenly was overcome with a bout of brainstormingmommykickassness, took control and chatted up sweet tammy sue at boogaloo, an underground "bar" just under the J tracks, next door to a pumping latin club, and stumbling distance of my apartment.

i say “bar” with some skepticism, because i very, very, very much doubt that the main business of this “bar” is distributing alcoholic beverages. or any beverages. or anything dry of any kind, come to think of it. but no matter. the “bartenders” at this “bar” gave us free run of the place, let us bring in as much champagne as we wanted, set up all of our bottles and glasses as we wanted, let us play our own music for the first couple hours, and giggled a lot. they did want us to have a one-drink minimum to make sure the “bar” made money, but cared zero about how it was implemented and didn’t seem to care very much at all about anything, even after they realized we gave away dozens of free drink tickets by the end of the night. eh. who cares. champagne — and the other substances that i believe the "bartenders" were floating around the "bar" — has that effect, i find... anyhoo. here i am: yay champagne!

now, there were all kinds of worlds mingling at the “bar.” but somehow, it seemed to work. here is the world of the newly Nastefied, the people who make work not unbearable, and dare i say — fun?here's the world of AM, the only ex I’ve ever managed to — come to think of it, ever wanted to — stay in touch with. i think it's that whole unbelievably-talented-thing he's got going. yay AM.and the world of out of town friends! here’s DR with DG, surprising me from the nation’s capitol. DR, by the way, completely forgot that he was responsible for me this morning. i sat numbly at my computer for 45 minutes, waiting forlornly for DD, my usual editor to find me, before i finally asked DR for work … can you believe that at 7:30am on Monday morning i was asking somebody to give me work to do?DR came with D — you sneaky girl, you are good at keeping secrets! — who had her fake boyfriend N in tow. i think she hearts him. but i think i do too. he gave me a cupcake. and my heart is easily bought by things such as cupcakes. here is the world of hearting:ES, writer extraordinaire, and of the world of my philly friends, was in town, also from the nation's capitol, for a meeting with newsweek. bless his stars, he hauled his ass out to brooklyn despite evidence of harsh flu-like symptoms. he and his new blonde mop deserved a kiss:

in fact, I think K, world of you know, world, deserved a kiss too. a big one. a big big one. K secretly wants to move into my apartment. it's okay. i kinda want her to, too. 22.okay. so speaking of kissing. i think maybe i gave AB a big fat smacker on the mouth? MAN. i was kissy on saturday night. but look at him! too precious. i think that maybe on my 24th birthday i maybe grabbed his butt? oy vey. if Y were not one of the most beautiful women in the world, and of the world of the chosen few, and of the world of incredibly patient people who can handle me when i'm freaking out over something like, oh, a venue change for my birthday party, and cool enough to take calls at 3am from "bartenders" ... she might have cared that i was smooching everyone in sight, including her boyfriend. however, she is, and is, and is, and is. here she is with C, the other half of Amy's Fantabulous Wonderful Party Planning Crew:and here’s G, also of the world of the chosen few. he makes me giggle. he also wins the prize for dealing with me at the end of the night, when i was approximately 4 bottles of champagne deep, and insisting that somebody, namely G, walk me down broadway so i could look for pizza at 3am. what i learned on this adventure: there is no pizza available on broadway at 3am. only fried chicken. and empanadas. and slightly scary neighborhood types. no pizza. i also learned that G can manage a verrrry tipsy, hungry girl in 4-inch wedge heels that is trying to lean over the bridge railing to take pictures of the cars on the BQE, and still carry a bag of 30 dirty champagne glasses for several blocks without breaking a single one. good job, G.here’s AS, fresh from her own 27th. what is that they say about opposites attracting? you're the light to my dark, AS ... and i couldn't think of a better person to share a birthday with. chosen few chosen few!
and of course, my lil C. i believe mischief was afoot. but we deserved a little mischief. maybe it was the thought of all those metal buckets. maybe the "thank you" offered to us by the "bartenders." maybe the pictures in the bathroom? oh wait. um. uh. anyways. sigh. what would i do without these girls?

here’s to year 27. thank you to everyone who came and for making my birthday splendid :)

splendid!

the birthday baton has been officially passed. next up: Y.