Hey there, 27. You came up fast!

I write to you on my twenty seventh birthday from my fire escape. It's about 84 outside with a slight breeze and oh so nice!



It's hard to believe I'm entering into my late 20's. (Early = 20-23, Mid = 24-26, Late = 27-29. At least that's how I split it up.) It's been twenty years since my golden birthday and I can still remember it clearly. We were in Maryland at my grandparents house & a group of us went to Wild World to celebrate. I rode my first roller coaster there and loved it. Wild World is now a Six Flags, I believe.

Up here, I actually did a little celebrating yesterday. Katy said she would come along for whatever I wanted to do. As we are both pretty strapped for moolah, I wanted to make sure it was cheap. Katy had to work for part of the day but we made plans to meet at Red Mango on Bleecker when she got off and go from there. I have been dying for Red Mango since I had it in Chicago a year ago. There is supposedly one coming soon on Allen Street which is right near me but coming soon doesn't help right now, haha. Bleecker isn't too far so I jumped on the train and made my way over there. As I started walking down the street, I could see the sign and got so excited... until I got in front of the building. It was empty and a sign saying "For Lease" hung in the window. I called KB to tell her not to come this far down, we'll meet back in the park. I suggested maybe going to the movies instead. KB and I always go to the movies together and we LOVE Marky Mark movies so we decided to go check out The Other Guys. Definitely worth the money! I laughed soooo hard. Even funnier though was the guy sitting next to Katy. Every time he would laugh, I would laugh even harder because he was slapping his knee, stomping, shaking and going full throttle. We stuck around to watch the credits for awhile because they were so interesting: among the actual credits were facts about fraud schemes and discrepancies between CEO salaries and those of their employees. At one point, it said "2159 = the year Bernie Madoff gets out of jail" and most of the theatre cheered and clapped.

After the movie we came back to the East Village for dinner. When I left JMU, the 2K10 Student Ambassador Exec board gave me a very large, very generous and very appreciated going away basket. One of the items in it was a gift certificate to a place called Dallas BBQ. There's one right in the East Village on 2nd Ave & St. Marks! That gift certificate bought me the most delicious dinner I've had since moving up here and I got some veggies too which I'd been craving. Mmm mmm mmm. To end the evening, we sat on my fire escape, had some Sangria and cheersed to another year of life.

This morning I awoke to some wonderful text messages! Rachel was home too and she got me a BEAUTIFUL candle holder that she brought back from her trip to Coasta Rica. That was so thoughtful of her! I really, really love it and was so surprised. My birthday mission today was to find an actual Red Mango and treat myself. SCORE!! There's one on W. 14th and 6th Ave for REALS!! I ordered my favorite: original with raspberries and chocolate chips. Also sat and read for awhile, enjoying the air conditioning.




On the way home, I heard there was some constuction on my subway line and would have to go to Brooklyn and then change to a Manhattan bound F. That was going to take too long so I got on the D instead and got off at Broadway/Lafayette and explored my way back to my apartment. This may not be the most adventurous birthday but it's certainly enjoyable and relaxing. Just being here in the city and knowing I live here right now is a great gift. I got several cards in the mail today too and loved opening them and reading what people wrote. Also had some really wonderful phone calls. Definitely feeling the love and am filled with gratitude for all of you guys wishing me a happy birthday and new year. Pretty relaxing, sweet day. I'm excited for this new year. I like odd numbers better than even ones. Cheers to 27!