Twenty-six really rolled out the welcome mat. This was the first birthday I've spent in Sugar Land since high school. And, although I missed the traditional parental speaker phone Happy Birthday song, I did get gifts and hugs and a pedicure and a homemade cake. I think that was a pretty good trade-off.
Back in New York, the second round of birthday celebrating started on Friday. My co-worker, Jeanne and I snuck out of the office early to enjoy the unbelievably beautiful weather. We settled at an outdoor bar in the Meat Packing District, sipped embarrassingly expensive martinis and looked for celebrities at Pastis next door. Unfortunately, instead of Mary Kate, we mostly saw aging, round-bellied Europeans. Oh well.
The next morning was spent choosing my favorite burnt orange t-shirt, annoying my roommate with my Longhorn pride and contemplating my most clever Sooner smack talk to send via text message to Chelsea.
In a VERY good mood, we headed out to the Lower East Side. To officially ring in 26, Sarah and I had reserved tables at The Delancy and invited everyone we knew in NYC (let's be honest -- we don't know that many people).
The birthday girls:
The bar was loud and the lines were long but the drinks were good and friends started coming in in twos and threes. It was a glorious mishmash of old and current roommates, co-workers, displaced Sugar Land'ers, The Dash+entourage, and even my 12th grade oral interpretation partner (wow, I'm a geek). She has since moved on from oral interpretation to professional theater. Clearly, she was the better performer of the pair.
Then sun up, a cab to the edge of the world (NYC), early morning PATH fun, another taxi, a tip-toe across the apartment's squeaky floors, my pillow, nearly 24 hours of nothingness and a return to normalness. Happiness.
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