Birthday Weekend

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So...last Friday was my birthday. I turned an age that involves a 4 and a 3 but not necessarily in that order - like maybe I'm 34 now or 3/4. Who knows?! To celebrate, Luisa and I left the kids in the care of our amazing friends early Friday morning and flew to New Jersey. Our plan was to stay with Deborah and Gabriella and spend time exploring New York City and we did spend time in NYC just not that much. Who knew we wouldn't want to leave New Jersey?

Still, I did learn a few things while in New York and I wanted to share them with you today:

  1. If you say "We don't need an umbrella. It's not going to rain", it will rain. A lot.
  2. If you see a plain black umbrella at the NBC store, buy it but understand that you are at the NBC store. When you take off the plain black wrapper, you will find yourself with a Friends-themed umbrella. I'll be there for you indeed. It's ok - it helps the locals identify that you are a tourist.
  3. Old ladies in NY will give you a smackdown if they think you're trying to get their cab. Even if you are super nice and polite and apologetic, they will kill you with NEWYORKOLDLADYLASEREYES!
  4. There are many nice New Yorkers and, if you are reduced to ash by NEWYORKOLDLADYLASEREYES, a couple of them might hail a cab for you and apologize for the old ladies.
  5. Denim takes hours to dry.
  6. You should probably eat before you meet Twitter friends at the Cubbyhole and drink all the vodka. (Thanks to @Mayati, @Tweetsbian and @Faith_Venice - we had a blast!)
  7. I will always trust Gabriella to pick the restaurant.
  8. You can bump and grind to Tiny Dancer. You can...not saying you should.
  9. The hair of the dog that bit you generally works but it's harder when you've been bitten by all the dogs...when it's like you've been covered in dog chow and dipped in dogs.
  10. If you like gin, you need to try Nolet. Go get some right now.
  11. Even the smallest moment can be amazing when you are spending time with the right people.

A list of eleven things! Radical! Do we all feel off balance now!

I could not have asked for a better birthday weekend. It was filled with the best people, the best food and the best drinks. Thanks to Luisa for taking the leap with me and making this last minute trip happen. Thanks to my Minneapolis friends for taking care of the kids (including little Momo). Thanks to my Twitter friends for a great rainy afternoon at the Cubby. Thanks to Deborah and Gabriella for everything - I can't even articulate how much we enjoyed our time with you. And lastly, I'd like to thank the Academy for the Oscar for Humorous Documentary Short should the video footage from the piano bar ever find it's way to the light of day.