Forty

The week of Blondie's birthday turned out to be a most excellent week. It started off that Wednesday with me making a trip down to Tribeca to meet Blondie after work. It was the first time I had been on the subway in over a month, so it was actually a lot of fun heading down there. I like walking to work a lot, but do miss the crush of a rush hour subway sometimes. Anyway, Blondie and I met up for some pizza and a few drinks and then wandered Tribeca for awhile, before heading to see Lady Antebellum!

Blondie had gotten free tickets for their show - they did a very intimate, standing room only, 50 minute set, and it was incredible. I don't listen to country music, but Blondie loves it - I was very hesitant going in, hoping that I would like it, and they blew me away. They were literally about 10 feet from us (only about 100 people got tickets to this concert) and I loved it. We are hoping we can see more concerts like this in the future. Afterwards, we were giddy - and got to talking all "did you ever imagine that 10 years ago we'd be living in NYC?!?!?!" Just a really great night.

Thursday I was up and at 'em early b/c Mr and Mrs Pooh were on their way to NYC! I got to work at 8 am so that I could leave at 4 pm and hang with the Poohs. Side note: it's really funny when you mention "my baby brother is here!" and someone says "how old is your baby brother?" and you say "35". The day went super fast, and before I knew it, I was walking out of my building to meet up with the Poohs. We headed over to poison bar for many drinks (and free Jaeger shots from the nice folks at Jaeger) and some snacks. Blondie joined us there for a bit before we headed over to Southern Hospitality for some dinner. The highlight of which was when Blondie sprayed Mr Pooh with BBQ sauce.

After dinner, it was a trek back up to the Pooh's hotel so Mr Pooh could change out of his BBQ shirt; and then a quick walk over to see Rock of Ages! We imbibed in some jello shots beforehand and then spent a delightful 2.5 hours watching the show. I love Rock of Ages - everything about it makes me happy. I was singing and dancing along in my seat - and I was not alone. Blondie even said it was his favorite musical out of all the ones we've been to. The evening ended then as the Poohs had an early start on Friday.

Friday Blondie and I started our laundry and then headed to the gym. We got everything done and the apartment cleaned, and then N&LG arrived! We hung out with them for a bit in our apartment, and then I headed up to Penn Station b/c Brother R and Shugs were coming in also. What a morning - everyone was in NYC for Blondie and it made me soooo happy! I walked Brother R and Shugs back to their hotel, and Blondie and N&LG met us there. We walked up through Times Square and then took a train down to Little Italy - we met up with the Poohs and all of us headed for Lombardi's pizza for lunch. Brother R and I also got to drinking, which ended up making for a delightful lunch. (Brother R declared Lombardi's the best pizza he had ever eaten; Mr Pooh thought he was ridiculous; but the pizza is fucking awesome).

After lunch, the group split up. Blondie headed out with the touring group; and Brother R and Shugs and I headed back to Hells Kitchen and hit up Pony Bar where we started drinking heavily. We were eventually met up again by Blondie and N≶ and a coworker of mine (long story - but they sent a coworker to get my desk keys; very new, very young, very shy guy who I forced into drinking with us). We ended up staying until around 5:30, and then Brother R went back to the hotel to get Shugs (who had headed for a nap earlier) and the rest of us headed to the apartment to drink more beer on the patio.

Around 7 the entire group met up for dinner. By then, I was pretty drunk so I was adamant we get a lot of sangria. And then I ignored my dinner entirely. Yet another sidenote: we had been trying to take Mr Pooh to the restaurant we were at everytime he came to town and had never done it; finally we went; and he said the chicken was the best chicken he had ever had (2 for 2 for meals!) After dinner, it was back over to the Winchester with everyone. The group split up pretty early but the Poohs and I stayed out until 11 pm ish. And then I headed back home to find the wonderful MG had made it town also!

Saturday I woke up and went to check on train schedules out to the Hamptons and realized we all had to be at Penn Station at 11:20 to make the train or we wouldn't be out to Hamptons until 9:30 pm. Oops. It was a mad dash - I immediately took off and ran errands (groceries, cupcakes, picking up breakfast stuff) and showed back up an hour later coated in sweat and rain. We managed to pull everyone together and make it to Penn on time; and then it was a 2 hour train trip out to the Hamptons. We ate lunch when we got there, and then walked about 1.5 miles to our house. Once we got settled in, the Poohs and I walked back up to town and bought a bunch of beer and then cabbed it back home. The Super V's showed up Saturday night, which made our group complete!

The house was really nice - big and spacious; but the hot tub never got above 85 degrees; and the heater for the pool didn't start until Monday (we called several times for both). So that kind of tainted our weekend; but other than that, we had a blast. We drank every day, we cannonballed into the cold pool, we got sunburnt, we watched bad TV, we cooked great meals, and most importantly, we celebrated Blondie turning THE BIG 4.0.!!!!!!!

Sunday was Blondie's birthday and we had a blast that day - most of the group headed off to the Hamptons beach early morning, but Brother R, Shugs and I sat around the pool drinking all morning. The group showed back up around 2 pm, and that's when we started cannonballing into the pool, and just generally being idiots. Mr Pooh did a BBQ for a late lunch, and then we got into some beer darts, which made me laugh until I almost peed myself - my 2 favorite things were when Mr Pooh hit my beer can and immediately got sprayed when it exploded backwards; and when NG hit Brother R's can and he stuck his foot over top of the spray because he was getting nailed (omg - I'm sitting here laughing thinking about it) MG made a poppy seed torte for Blondie's special treat (I bought cupcakes, MG actually cooked for Blondie - I'm an awesome wife ;) Shugs didn't realize it was poppy seeds and asked if it was tadpoles - another thing that is making me do a literal LOL right now. All in all - a great day celebrating Blondie surrounded by family.

On Monday we said goodbye to N&LG and the Poohs; and then we found HBO On Demand and started watching "We Bought a Zoo"; and we got into the wine and scotch big-time. By the end of our movie, me, Brother R and Shugs were bawling our faces off. We took a gross picture of my snotty face and texted it to the Poohs; and then headed out to sit with our feet in the pool (it was slowly warming up at this point). Shugs ended up dunking Brother R into the pool which was another "laugh until I almost pee myself moment" and we watched the next door neighbors attempt to pull a giant tree trunk out of their lawn with a pickup truck.

And then the weekend was over - the last day in the house the pool was awesome so we all went swimming that morning. And then we tried to use up the rest of our food and drink (breakfast scotch!) before we caught our train back to the city. At JFK stop, we said goodbye to everyone and then we got on our train to Penn Station and I cried the entire 20 minutes. I hate saying goodbye - it sucks.

To completely end the festivities, we met up with our bar friends on Tuesday night at our local, and filled them in on our weekend. It was good seeing them, and they wanted to wish Blondie a happy birthday also.

Wednesday it was back to the grind. Pbbbbbttttt. My boss and coworker were headed out of town for work for Thurs and Fri, and I got super excited because I was all "I'm leaving early on Friday!". Note to self: never ever ever say you are leaving early on a day because something will go wrong. And something did go wrong. And Friday was spent dealing with the fallout - it was a very long, very draining day, but I got to be part of something very exciting. I dragged myself home on Friday around 8:30 and then didn't move the rest of the night.

International Food Fest started on Saturday so Blondie and I headed up for that. Blondie got a turkey leg, and we split some empanadas. Then I found one of the bars doing a frito pie - and I knew immediately "I NEED DIS!" So I had a giant frito pie. And then we wandered our way back down the street and hit up poison bar - they were roasting a whole pig so we split a pig sandwich. Our waiter was there and he kept us in beer. The temps were dropping though so we didn't last very long before heading home to warm up.

On Sunday, I started my day out with a pedicure. It was perfect because it was misty and cold, so the pedicure totally hit the spot. Then it was Maine day at Pony Bar - all beers were Maine beers and the menu was a seafood menu. We split scallop sliders and a lobster roll, and got caught up with our musician friend who we hadn't seen in awhile. Then it was back up to Food Fest for some cupcakes and wandering.

On Monday I went into work and knew it would be crazy - the fallout on Friday was not resolved. We knew when we left on Friday that we would have a lot of work to do on Monday, so I went in just dreading it. Around 11 am, they asked me to hop a 4:30 pm flight out for work - headed back down to where my boss and coworker had gone the previous week to do technical support. So it was literally a run home, pack, run back to work to catch a car with the VP out to the airport.

We flew into Raleigh and then drove 1.5 hours out of Raleigh for work - we got in super late and then the next morning it was literally go-go-go until 3:30 pm; when we drove 1.5 hours back to Raleigh to catch our flight back to NYC. While in line at security in Raleigh, Mr Pooh texted and it turned out he was on his way to Raleigh also! I couldn't believe it - I was soooo hoping my flight would be delayed, but it wasn't; and I missed Mr Pooh by 45 minutes. It was a total bummer - that would've been so cool to meet up randomly in Raleigh.

The rest of this week has been boring. Not much has been going on. I got some corporate swag (a new umbrella) on Thursday and they brought in massive gourmet ice cream sandwiches yesterday for treats (I had a vanilla bacon ice cream in a chocolate chip cookie sandwich - it was nom nom nom). And then last night, Blondie and I headed to another local bar that we hardly ever go to for dinner. And afterwards it was back to our local where we had a sing/dance-off to the jukebox with all our friends. It was one of those nights where you feel so lucky to be alive and living in NYC - 15 people sitting around the bar singing along to Bon Jovi; getting free shots from our bartender; my best friends and my Blondie with me; I am lucky and I forget it sometimes. But not last night.

Workouts - I've been really good with workouts but I can't remember all that I've been doing over the last 3 weeks. I can tell you that I'm under 30 minutes again for 2.5 miles (29:09) so I'm super excited about that. But pinkie swear, I've been working out every day. I'll start up next week with my workout posts.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

--K