A Marathon of Celebrations

I attempted to publish this post 3 times,but thanks to the battery recall on my computer, I kept loosing it. Alas, here it is...

Where to begin?
Okay, Friday was my birthday, the big 2-3. I’m old. I’m single, ugh…it’s depressing.

After a LONG day at work, I was minding my own business, walking up the street to grab a salad on my way home from work. No matter how hard I try, food at 9pm, after being elbow deep in bodily fluids all day long is not my favorite part of the day. But I digress. So yeah, I’m walking down the street and this dude wearing green scrubs and a lab jacket walks up next to me and goes, “Long day?” “One of the longer ones, yeah.,” I replied, “Not quite how I wanted to spend my birthday.” “Oh, baby, it’s your birthday, oh well, at least you can go home and that nice boyfriend of yours will take you out for a nice dinner.” (Seriously, was this guy trying to make me feel worse about myself?)
“Ha-ha (I tried and laugh it off), no fancy boyfriend dinner for me, it’s a single spell right now.” Clearly, now, this man felt awkward, so he said, “Bye” and turned into the bodega. I proceeded up the street to get my salad. I turn around and who is standing there? Yup, the man. He come up, wraps his arms around me, says, “I’m sorry, I just had to give you hug. Goodnight.”
And just like that he left. Ummmm…okay?!?! I’d like to say that he came back again, swooped me off my feet, bought my dinner, and we lived happily ever after, but I cannot. However, I did go home and have the worlds SWEETEST and most adorable message from R & J that made my grin from ear to ear. After that, I went to bed.

Saturday- Birthday outing with the roommate.
Lovely early matinee movie (oh the early bird specials!!) and dinner before 8pm (granny and grampy time). Interesting point of the night, “I took the city bus!” (A first for me, and probably a last…but my roommate doesn’t travel by subway, so we saved our money and took the bus instead of a cab)
We saw Gone Baby Gone. Let’s just say it takes place in the vicinity of my youth (well, sort of). Let’s just say, there is scene in a bar, with a bunch of fat, toothless, tattooed drunks who speak improper English, swear like truckers, and drink beers that college frat boys wouldn’t touch. For all future posts, any shady place will be referred to as a GIG (gone baby gone) place. Then after the movie, we went to Josie’s. Food right up my alley. Healthy, organic, not a bank breaker. However, staying true to my reputation, after 2 drinks I was done, finished, all out chatterbox. We took a cab home. I was sound asleep by 10pm. And, oh yeah, no one told me about Daylight savings time.

Flash-forward to Sunday morning.
My alarm goes off at 7am. I hop up, get dressed, and rush to the gym. I had to get in my workout early because at 9am they were closing First Avenue for the marathon and I wouldn’t be able to get across to the gym. When I walked outside I couldn’t figure out why it was so dead, why it was so dark, and why the lights at the gym were OFF. What the H-E- double hockey sticks?!?!? Oh my god! I look at my cell phone, It’s only 6am. Shite! I walked home, sat on the couch for 54 minutes then went back. Grrrr.
I was home by9 and rushed to shower, so Amy and I could go the screening of Fred Claus (go see this! Adorable!)
However, getting there, another adventure. And you all know my love/hate relationship with traveling….
Since we couldn’t cross First Avenue to get to the subway, we had to flag down a cab on York, head south under the bridge, cross over 1st avenue at 57th street (where they were allowing traffic to cross) travel though midtown fighting the traffic of every idiot out-of-state diver here to spectate the marathon and angry cab driver. 50 minutes later, we arrived at the theater. We didn’t have to wait in line because one of Amy’s old coworkers was at the front of the line (seriously, is there anyone this girl doesn’t know??). Amy waited from her friend E and I saved the seats. Two hours later the movie was over and we battled back though the city to the Upper East Side where we had glorious plans to meet up with our friends (Amy’s cop friends and my nurse friends) to watch the marathon and have a few drinks (yes folks, drinking was the trend of the weekend…one that my liver still has not forgiven me for). However, to prevent it from being a huge shite show, we figured we would get some lunch. So we walked and walked and walked and walked….we couldn’t find anything that wasn’t a crowded bar or where we could get something light. Sushi before drinking didn’t seem like a good idea; however, if we had only known…
We ended up at the sketchy hole in the wall Chinese joint where I played it safe (or so I thought) and ordered a hot and sour soup. Yes, I know, this really wouldn’t absorb any of the copious amounts of alcohol that I was about to consume, but live and learn. Amy got the steamed veggie dumplings and rice. I had one dumpling. Honestly, not the tastiest food, not anything close too it. My soup tasted like cow poop smells…do you know what I’m talking about?
We people watched out the restaurant window and saw the people run/walk/drag their sore bodies along the route. Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for all those who participated, but at 3pm these people were only at mile 16…they had a LONG way left go!
Not wanting to look too eager to meet up with the boys (we like playing hard o get), we ceded to go the bar next door. Only one comment…GBG!!! Inside there were babies (yes, I said babies), toothless men in neon 1980’s windbreakers, a motley crew of over-aged football fans, and oh yes, a gaggle of folk who looked like they were plucked straight off the Beverly Hillbillies set. Amy had two drinks, I kept my sober state, then we went to the meet up spot.
Upon entering the bar, it was packed with eye candy! Old, young, fun, sporty, preppy (yay!!), jockey, tall, etc. However, we thought we got stood up…but after 30 minutes, Amy’s friends approached. Well, I guess thats where our joint adventure ends. Her cop friend was less than friendly to me, and even less so once his friends go there, but Natasha (my friend) showed up and we began our own adventure. After scoping out the cute Columbia law students (all of whom were awkward and WOULD NOT initiate conversation), we decided to head to a place where we knew we would have a good time…Saloon! (ugh, this awkward brood of boys reminded me of my days at Penn) . Alas, we were off! Let the games begin!!!

Now this is the beginning of the end, but oh so worth it.
Outside Saloon, we took out our ID’s and were recognized as locals and allowed to ‘skip’ the line. Inside it was packed wall to wall. We weren’t 5 feet through the door when I felt someone grab my arm; It was Patrick! (Nurse that we work with, aka Captain of Team ‘SO FUN”!!!) He was sorely dissatisfied with our empty hands, so he quickly fixed that. So much for saying sober this day. Then we met his friends Meg and Mary….also so fun! It was Mary’s bday so she just kept on buying drinks. Before I knew it, I was doing Yeager bombs (ouch people, ouch!). I’m not really sure where the time went, but at 9pn after watching the end of the Pats v Colts game, and some serious dancing on the dance floor, I knew I was done and decided to head home. After getting my bearings, I took off for home.

Thhe following event is why I think cell phones need to have built in breathalyzers… to prevent the infamous drunk dial…especially when the drunk dial is your mom and dad. Thank God my parents found me entertaining, but my rant about ‘Getting the game’ of football was more than I would have wanted to hear. Oh man, live and learn.

My story ends there. I came home, and passed out. Oh yeah, I did realize that Amy was home because all of her stuff was dropped in the front hallway…strewn about. Let’s just say she was ‘under the weather’ come Monday morning. Oh yeah, we both also fell victim to the Chinese food…thank heavens for Pepto Bismuth (indebted to the pink stuff!!) However, for my friends who did stay, they closed out the bar. Actually, they ended up taking Patrick's cousin to the ER after he fell and broke his ankle with his mean dancing skills. I’m kind of glad I wasn’t there because they took him to your place of employment, flashed their badges like they were VIP’s, and I’m sure were entertaining to the entire ER waiting room crowd at 2am.

Oh the adventures of my life.