HOORAY FOR BIRTHDAYS

Despite my initial feelings of gloom and homesickness about celebrating my birthday away from loved ones, I woke up on August 3rd...okay, I left work on August 2nd with a spring in my step. Lauren and I celebrated early with Coldstone (it's only 1 block down...the end of my semi-flat stomach) in my favorite combo--cake batter with a brownie mixed in. We walked...off our ice cream...and found a liquor store. Liquor is sooo cheap here ya'll. And they sold flasks! My first second gift!

My actual birthday in pictures:

My birthday OOTD. My shoes got lots of compliments.

My favorite flowers from my team. My 5lbs of strawberries from my favorite nerd. Oh! And that is Larry. We both have the same crappy desks. We bond over that.

So I planned to bring a sandwich for lunch. But lo and behold, I left my lunch meat out the night before. I made a big fuss to Lauren about it. When it was lunch time, my usual lunch crew came over. We always discuss where we're going to go, get food from there and meet at a outdoor, roof-top lounge down the street. For some reason, I couldn't find my cards (needed to access my office and the building) and kind of held up everyone. Andy, a supervisor on my multicultural team, was like, let's just go Sandy. So I just stopped fumbling and followed him. There is an entrance through the conference room so we walked in there and...

SURPRISE!

Baked by Melissa, two-bite cupcakes. L-R:Sundae, Cinnemon, Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate, Red Velvet NOMNOMNOM

Yesenia had planned a birthday lunch for me with the rest of the multicultural team filled with sushi and cupcakes! It was a total surprise, because I hadn't made a big deal about my birthday. I mean, come on, at this point in the day I had not even picked a restaurant to eat at even though I invited some friends to dinner. It was truly touching and I had a great time at lunch.

Afterwork, I was craving a taste of Texas. So Yesenia, Yolanda and I went to El Rio Grande...a Tex-Mex restaurant where we munched on chips and watery queso while sipping the strongest margarita EVAR.

Dinner was at Fig & Olive, a lovely, modern restaurant suggested to me by my seasoned New Yorker friend Henry. It's concept is built around olive oil. They only cook with olive oil and serve contemporary Mediterrenean food. It was quite lovely.

PENNE FUNGHI TARTUFO-cremini mushroom, parmesan, black truffle paste, fresh parsley & scallion - Truffle Olive Oil

Fun

Laughs

Birthday wishes

It was a wonderful night. And it didn't stop there, I'm still getting presents in the mail. I am deeply grateful for the love I have from my friends and family. This birthday has been one of the most enjoyable and fun, which is not what I expected at all. In fact, I half expected to just get drunk and cry about not being with loved ones. Haha. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my post with it's hipster-filtered photos (I used an app on my iPhone to change the appearance of the photos). Here's a little more just to end my post.

Thanks for the lemon Tommy and Thu. My favorite brand of candle. In my favorite color.

I don't think anything can express how much I love my mother.