yes, my birthday isn't for another 8 days. BUT my BFITW's birthday was 8 days ago. which makes today, the day right in between the two, the perfect day to tell you all about our most wonderful birthday weekend adventures! (also, because i forgot yesterday)(alsoalso, today is Pi Day. coincidence? i think not!)(sine cosine cosine sine! 3.14159!)(wow, nerd much?)
we're turning 25 this year. (or 52, depending on how you hold the balloons)
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| apparently at 52 your back just gives up |
turning 25 is the last birthday with any real reason to look forward to (cheap car insurance FTW!) so we decided to celebrate this year in style. New York City style. we made a few plans. but our overarching plan was just to wing it and have a good time. our good friend Nadine suggested that we make a list of 25 things that we wanted to do on our 25th birthday weekend. so we did.
and then we did all of the things on it.
1. Anything Goes. the main event of the weekend, and the one thing we had to plan in advance. we bought our cheapseat tickets and sat on the aisle in the next to the last row AND WE LOVED IT! seriously, there are no bad seats at these shows, and this one was freaking fantastic. the music was awesome, the premise was hilarious, and the dancing - can i just say "entire ensemble tap number?" dang, that was impressive.
2. Central Park. granted, we spent most of our time walking around looking for a bathroom, but we did manage to cover an impressive amount of park in our wanderings.
3. Times Square. is way cooler at nighttime than during the day. so glad that our random wanderings managed to get us there at the right time to enjoy all the lights.
4. Toys R Us Ferris Wheel. for as many times as i have been to the city, i have never rode the big ferris wheel inside Toys R Us. and for as many times as Julie has been to the city (more than me) she had never even been inside the store. so yes, we were those girls who were obviously too old to be so excited to be riding in a Cabbage Patch Kid gondola and we didnt even have anyone under the age of 10 with us to use as a cover. i have no regrets.
5. Empire State Building. this part of our adventure included my sister with the babies (who are like all growed up into full-fledged kids!) and her husband. we bypassed all the lines with a VIP pass and took in the sights from both the 85th and 102nd floors. it pays to have an awesome brother in law who works in the Empire State Building.
6. Exchange Presents. this was the first thing we did, because we love presents and also because we didnt want to have to carry them around taunting us all weekend before we could open them. best friend necklaces, a pink sparkle clutch, and some gorgeous painted wine glasses were exchanged. happy birthday to us!
7. Go Out To Dinner. on our way to Times Square we stopped in a little cafe to eat. it wasnt a fancy dinner, but it counts.
8. Drink Something Alcoholic. thank you Jimmy! whatever it was that you mixed together in those glasses, it was delicious!
9. Minion Cupcakes. ok. so we saw this picture on Pinterest and decided that we absolutely NEEDED these cupcakes. they were fun and surprisingly easy to make, and they were some tasty artery-clogging goodness. note for next time: invite people to help you eat them all, and cover them overnight unless you really like super crunchy twinkies.
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11. UnicornHockeyPuckMonkeyMonkeyUnderpants. is a mix CD we made in college. full of songs with wonderful keychanges. we made several of these mixes over the years. this was by far our best effort. also, wonderful tunes for driving, and an amazing Gilmore Girls reference.
12. Take at Least 25 Pictures on Each Camera. the last few times we've been together, we've forgotten to take any pictures. not this time. no way.
13. Eat Good Bagels. Abi went out on Saturday morning and got these from the best bagel place in the city, which just so happens to be in their neighborhood. ours had vegetable cream cheese and Lox. which is salmon. and surprisingly delicious.
14. Go For a Run. its been forever since we've run together, and it felt good to burn off those minon cupcakes from the night before. by our best estimate we did almost 3 miles without even realizing it. yay us!
15. Eat From a Street Vendor. the worst soft pretzel we have ever had.
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17. Sushi. oh yes we did. Jimmy took us to a buffet right around the corner from his office. there were a few that i tried and did not care for, but for the most part everything was delicious and filling and the desserts were so tiny and adorable!
18. New York Pizza. remember that random place that we stopped for dinner on our way to Times Square? yeah, we count a slice of pizza and some mango snapple as going out for dinner.
19. Ride the Subway. we did it twice. all by ourselves. Jimmy pointed us in the right direction to get us down to Lower Manhatten, and when we wanted to get back we just picked a random subway station and it just so happened that we picked a good one and we rode it back north to Central Park.
20. Stop at a Convenience Store/Rest Stop. ok so at this point we were struggling to come up with things to finish our list. but we did it, both on our way to and from the city. and it was fun. honest!
21. Try Something New. for me, it was the sushi. for Julie, it was fish on her bagel. 25 things is a lot for one weekend, ok?
22. Get Gas in Jersey. we almost missed our chance on the way in, but stopped at the last rest stop in New Jersey for a snack and for gas that we didn't have to pump ourselves.
23. Ride the Train. Abi and Jimmy rode the train into the city with us in the morning. later after the show, we had to find our own way back. we only got a little bit turned around, (we were NOT lost) but we had to run through the station to catch the train back to Queens. so what if we added it to the list just to cross it off? it was all part of the adventure.
24. Parallel Park. in between two cars. go ahead. be impressed. i know i was. (Abi fixed it for me later. shhhh... dont tell!)
25. Sign the Brooklyn Bridge. this one was kind of a happy surprise bonus for us. we were trying to go to the 9/11 Memorial, but by the time we realized that we needed to get tickets to get in, we would have had to wait 2 hours just until we could get in line to get into the memorial, and we didnt have that kind of time. so instead we decided to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. (confession: we really only did half of it.)
and on our way back, we decided to sign it. just to let people know we had been there. you know, in case we ended up getting shot on the subway later in the day, we didnt want to be forgotten.
so that was our epic 25th birthday weekend celebration! sorry for the long post and the millionandahalf pictures, but it was a jam-packed weekend and i wanted to tell you all just how awesome it was! sometimes facebook albums just dont quite cut it.
if you're looking to have an epic NYC weekend, i know a place with a couch and an air mattress where company is always welcome as long as you dont mind being woken up by a 4-year old tickling your feet or a 2-year old jumping on your bed. but make your reservations soon, because they won't be in the city much longer!
so, anyone have any fun plans for Pi Day!?
2 comments:
Those street vendor pretzels were awful...I was disappointed.
Abi told us after the fact that we should have got the nuts instead... oh well, there's always next time.
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