A few months ago I started getting into my reader, adding a ton of subscriptions and making plans for less TV. Not too surprisingly I've almost entirely been ignoring the tech feeds (not great for work) and have been engrossed in many design, fashion, photography and art blogs. Apparently I've rediscovered my inner design goddess. In my next life I want to make something with my hands as a career. Until then I'll just blog about it: On Maiden Lane. The site is still work in progress as I figure out the colors and stuff.
It's been quite the week of celebrations. Initially I was kind of sad to be celebrating this birthday on the single wagon but so many friends came to the rescue that I didn't even reflect much on it. I really am so very lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. Growing up I didn't have a ton of friends so it's really surprising to see how many close relationships I've been able to hold onto through the years. It makes getting older much easier.
Wednesday started off with early morning birthday wishes, gifts from Sippey and Sarah, then lunch with my 6a peeps and finally a late night dinner with girlfriends at House of Prime Rib. I love this restaurant and frequent it often for holidays and birthdays. There was an old man at the bar celebrating his 105th birthday that evening. He's been a regular there for years now. Very sweet. We closed down the restaurant with two bottles of champagne, a bottle of wine and shots of tequila. Not sure how but I didn't even have a hangover the next day!
I took Friday off to get some pampering done and then had quite an epic birthday party at District. I was there from 5pm to well after midnight because people just kept on coming. I don't think I was ever empty handed either as the champagne was definitely flowing. Sadly because of all the people I couldn't make it over to Chris' celebration in the Mission. :( I might have overdone it on the invite list but it did make me feel very loved that so many old friends showed up.
The next morning despite my aching feet and a banging headache, I managed to get up and go at it again. The afternoon was spent with Sarah on Joann's sunny deck celebrating Nico's birthday. We did shots of mocha infused vodka, ate coconut and pineapple cake, and took sneak peeks at her hot neighbor over in the other building. After that I drove to the other side of the city for Suzanne's bridal shower in South Park. She held a cocktail event with champagne and hors d'oeuvres rather than the traditional house party. Loved it.
So you're probably thinking that this has to be the end of the night because I've been drinking for way too many hours. Right? Um, not quite. We went from the bridal shower to Suzanne's bachelorette party at Circolo. Crazy. I changed from flats to heels in the car and was ready to go though. After buying Suzanne a few rounds of shots, Patty and I headed to the Elbo Room in the Mission. WeFunk Radio djs were spinning and we caught the last hour of an awesome set. I found Randy, Krissy and Garth but couldn't find Steve in the crowd of sweaty people (thanks Steve for the invite, I wish I could have come earlier because the music was off the hook).
Now I'm back at home and finally getting the chance to relax. Looking forward to the upcoming week where I actually don't have anything planned ...at least not until the weekend. ;)
The first year I celebrated my birthday without my mother, I turned seventeen and went out with my best friend and her family to dinner. C's family had offered to take me to the Spagetti Factory which I totally loved at the time. I figured I'd do something with my mom that weekend. Not a big deal right? Um, wrong. A very big deal. When I came home, she flipped out about how ungrateful I was and that she brought me into the world not to celebrate my day with another family. That wasn't the worst of it as she continued to remind me of this incident for many birthdays to come.
Fast forward ten years and my mother unbelievable started forgetting my birthday. She was usually just off by a day or two but then one year she totally forgot to call for two weeks. When she finally did, I was beyond being bummed and kind of just in shock.
"HOOooooney, it your mommmy. How is baby?" she said brightly.
"I'm okay, busy with work. And you?"
She laughed nervously, "Okay mommy...mommy know is so, SO bad. But I remember before, just forgot on the day and mommy busy with temple. You know temple. Okay?? HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! You want some money?"
I stared at the phone in disbelief, "OMG mom, I do not want money!!!"
I called her last night because it's been a good month since I've seen my parents. And I wanted to remind her that today was the day, just in case. She called this morning to sing me happy birthday. Except she only knows the first line of the melody and proceeded to repeat that over and over. Thanks mom. :)
Last Wednesday Stef called with an offer that I couldn't refuse, purchase a ticket to Vegas and everything else would be covered for the 4th of July weekend. Her manager was flying there with a high roller friend and apparently two hotels were covering all of their expenses. Crazy! They put the two of us in a suite one floor below the penthouse at the Palazzo, the new Venetian towers, with a fantastic view of the strip. We treated ourselves to lots of pool time, the spa and several decadent meals. It was fabulous.
I've known Stef for a few years now but this was the first time that we've done a solo thing together. I feel kind of special that she thought of me for the trip. It was a great time and we got along so well. We're more alike than we first realized and I know this is the beginning of a close friendship. Here are highs and lows from the weekend:
- Our suite came with three flat screen TVs including one in the bathroom, remote controlled curtains and a walk-in closet
- The lounge chairs directly in the pool were awesome. Who needs a cabana when you can sit in the water all day?
- Ran into a friend's bachelor party and got to hang out with friends that I haven't seen in years
- A very drunk girl fell into a friend’s birthday cake and then wiped her hands on my dress
- Went to Jet at Treasure Island as a favor to Stef's manager and discovered it was the "5’4 and under" club
- Pulled an all-nighter on Saturday to fly out at
7:30am on Sunday. I felt a little crazy
at the airport but well that's how Vegas is done I suppose
- My feet still hurt from dancing in heels all
weekend. Heh.
Sometimes it takes a few plays before I really connect with bands and their music. I have a tendency to fall in love with albums long after others have started playing them at housewarming parties and they're on request in jukeboxes around the city. When it finally happens I'll listen to a particular album on repeat until I can't bear to hear another single note from it.
There's been many albums where I've done this going back as far as Disintegration, a time where I was going through the years of "How the hell did I end up with this family?", to more recent memories of drinking wine and dancing to Hot Fuss with my girlfriends. Each of these albums takes me back to a place and time, and reminds me of how far I've come and how much further the road is ahead. This month I'm stuck on Crystal Castles:
After years of going to Vegas for birthdays, getaways, bachelorette parties and one very cold New Year's Eve, I know better than to come into work the very next day. It takes a full day to recover from the excessive drinking and lack of sleep. Almost all of yesterday was spent either in bed or on my couch, minus the hour I spent unpacking and cooking dinner. Today my legs are still sore from all the dancing that I did on Saturday night. It was a fun time despite initial my concern that I was too old to be partying like that. ;)
The roundup from the weekend (includes only details that I could talk about in a public blog like this):
- Stayed in two awesome suites at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Very swanky but it was about a mile of walking to get to the pools. We were hooked up with a discount so the rooms ended up being cheaper than staying in Mandalay Bay.
- Average temperature in Vegas was 105 degrees. Such a shame that I only spent a total of four hours in the wave pool.
- My longest stretch of dancing in one night without sitting down? 5 hours.
- Celebrity takeover: Kardashians at Pure nightclub caused the lines to shutdown at midnight. We thought there was going to be a riot since they had a zillion people waiting.
- Bill for bottle service and table at Prive: two bottles of Grey Goose vodka at $450 per bottle.
- Stef's friend hooked us up with a "party bus" that came equipped with a dancer's pole. I would like to note that I did not partake in the pole dancing.
- Met Steve Kim from Chippendale's at Seamless, a new after hours club.
- Missed breakfast every day. But we did dine at Bradley Ogden and Social House.
The latter's tasting menu of sashimi was amazing and worth every
penny. Bradley Ogden is owned by the same restauranteur as Lark Creek
here in San Francisco but it definitely wasn't as good.
- I slept a total of four hours in two days. Woo.
I accidently overdid the day 1 of this week because I was starting off with the day 2 section. It is getting easier but of course that's because I'm not consistently doing double digits yet. Can't wait until I am!
Day 1: 6,5,3,3,5
Day 2: 6,5,3,3,10
Day 3: 5,5,4,4,11
Sarah wasn't feeling well this afternoon so I drove her St. Mary's hospital over by Golden Gate park. I dropped her off at the entrance and then parked the car in the garage. When I walked through the entrance I expected to find a directory but all I got was some girl on her cell phone giving me the dirty eye. It's rather baffling that hospitals floor plans aren't made more intuitive. People come here in times of pain and stress and are left staring at the five million signs wondering which way is the right way to go. They need medical help not GPS.
I was kind of expecting the emergency room to open up in front of me when I exited the elevator. Kind of like in the movies where there's this huge room with patients shuffling back and forth. Not quite. After turning two corners and ending up in the radiology section, I asked a nurse where the emergency room was.
"Um, it's behind you over there." He said with a tired look.
Oh, I completely missed the white double doors that said "Emergency Room" on them. Heh. I tried the doors but they were locked. An old man walking down the hall kindly yelled out, "Dear, you have to hit the intercom before they let you in..there, hit that button." An intercom? What if I was having a heart attack?
After they buzzed me in I figured this was where I would see the big waiting room. I ran down the hall past curtained rooms, empty gurneys and medical equipment and somehow ending up in another lab section. WTF? Since the emergency room was on the bottom floor, there were really low ceilings and no cell phone reception, so I couldn't even call Sarah.
I turned down two more hallways and then circled back around to the nurse's station out of breath, "Have you seen my friend? She just came in..she's about this tall, um.." The nurse looked at me like I was crazy. ".. Um, do you have a waiting room or something??"
She pointed me to a set of white sliding doors that I just ran past. OMG. I finally find Sarah and we spend the next fifteen minutes sitting in a tiny waiting room flipping through brochures about medical alarms and hospital billing options. There's an 80s cop movie playing on the crappy TV and the guy beside me is picking at the wound in his knee. Lovely stuff.
Finally she got checked out and I went back to the waiting room which was now filled with too many people. After five minutes or so, the guy behind me decided to rest his feet on the seat next to my head. Um, so gross. I sat perched in my seat watching the knee guy fidget back and forth. After ten minutes of this I couldn't take it anymore and bolted for the sliding doors. Except um, they didn't slide this time. Push. Nothing. I turned to see one of the ladies in the room staring at me stupidly. I looked at the doors again and saw the fine print, "Doors do not open on their own." Seriously? Why the hell not? I turned back to the check-in desk, "Um, the door doesn't open on it's own???"
The nurse rolled her eyes, "No they don't." She hit a button and the doors opened up.
ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Sarah was treated with medication through an interesting plastic breathing contraption. I almost took a photo but it looked kind of phallic and I was sure she'd kill me for posting it. She's doing better now and despite the craziness of that hospital, we did get a good laugh about all the things we saw but couldn't txt anyone about.
