A Week Long Birthday Celebration: the Big 3-0! - Days 66 -75

Basically, I want to turn 30 every year. This birthday rocked. Like seriously. My family spoiled the crap out of me and I had such a wonderful time home doing so many magnificent things. When my mom first proposed that I come home for my birthday I was a little apprehensive. I thought it was just way too expensive a trip when I would be home in only a short month. I figured we could just celebrate when I returned in December. But my mom insisted and I'm really glad she did! Instead of doing individual posts for each day, I'm just going to throw it all into one post. One big birthday amalgamation! (Warning: This is going to be the longest post ever. Hydrate and pace yourself!)

Wednesday, October 30: After a heinous experience with the heaviest suitcase in the world in tube stations with NO ELEVATORS, I finally arrived at the check-in gate only to find out that (surprise, surprise) my suitcase was over the weight allowance. How much would it be for a suitcase that is 6 pounds over you ask? $200!!! I asked her if she was on crack and then proceeded to put on every article of clothing I had in my bag. I looked like the effin Michelin man! So now I'm late, I'm sweating, and I have to settle in for an almost 8 hour flight. Sweet Jesus. (Real quick though: Shout out to the guy who helped me carry my luggage at the tube station. He almost missed his train to help me. I didn't ask for help. He just saw me struggling and came over and took it from me. What a bloke! God, I love gentlemen. I'm staying here FOREVER!) Anyway, my dad picked me up in Newark after a little snafu with trying to reach him since my UK cell now didn't work in the States. Le sigh.
Question: What is the first thing this American did?
Answer: DRIVE THROUGH MCDONALDS FOR THE BIGGEST DIET COKE THEY HAD! I was in heaven. Goofy, little creepy smile on my face a la Gollum in Lord of the Rings. What can I say - it's an addiction. Then I went home to play with my dogs and relish in the tongue-bath of a lifetime! There is NOTHING like the love and affection of your dogs. Nothing. 

Me and Liam! I want to smush that little face! Gah!

Me and Jackson. He does not look amused. 

I then went to my friend Julie's house for a haircut. She and I used to work together at MAC and she is one talented gal. She cuts and dyes my hair. I asked her to take the pink out and add in some highlights. So 5 hours later, I had a new do and was ready to go home and see the rest of my family. HUGS AND KISSES GALORE! It's only been 2 1/2 months, but it's amazing how much I missed them! 

My new hurrrr.... 

Check my new bangs. But what's with my goofy faces? What a spaz. 

Thursday, October 31- Halloween: Thursday was actually pretty chill. I took my grandmother to lunch at our local haunt. Oh yummy pizza how I've missed you. Then I went home to prepare dinner for the family. In the interim, Andrew and I went to the liquor store and decided that for my birthday party we should have a signature drink. (We also needed to buy champagne to celebrate that I found out today that my thesis passed my second reader and I can officially graduate! Woohoo!)

OK, so back to the signature drink hunt - that's when we found Pumpkin Pie vodka! Who was the genius?! This led us to go home and create some drink experiments. A little Baileys. Some Kahlua. Some Frangelico. Some more vodka. Whipped cream, of course. Shot after shot and by dinnertime I was pretty tipsy.  Plus, it's Halloween so clearly I'm doing all this while dressed as Harry Potter. Our Trick or Treaters were frightened away because I was passionately conveying that I don't give candy to Muggles. Obviously, I had too many Pumpkin Pie shots. The amount of alcohol was directly proportionate to my refusal of candy to the "Muggles" in full on British accent. I was like the Soup Nazi of trick or treating! Yeah, I'm on crack. Who let me out of the madhouse? And who thought it was a good idea for me to be the one to answer the door? Lesson learned!

Biggest bottle of champagne ever. Celebration abounds! I PASSED MY THESIS- Drink up!
By the way, this is a shitious picture of me. But who cares? I got champagne!

Not the prettiest drinks, but pretty damn tasty!

Check out my badass scar. (Doh, it kinda looks like a smudge in this picture.)

Friday, November 1: My mom took off work today so that we could hang out. We went for mani/pedis and then went to our favorite place to go together, Marsha Browns, a very fancy steakhouse. But our favorite thing is to sit at the bar and order raw clams and a steak to share and obviously some alcohol. Always so delicious and perfect. Then Karli and Laura came home and we dashed out the door to go and see The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Bucks County Playhouse, which has been a Halloween tradition since I'm like 16 years old. The show used to be pretty good, but the reason you'd go is because it was ridiculously raunchy and insane! We'd all dress up (everyone would!). People would shout dirty lines during the show and throw props up on stage at certain cue lines. It was always so wild. But this show was like... classy. No dancing the Time Warp. Very little yelling at the characters (almost all by me and Laura). The talent was phenomenal - all Broadway actors, but we definitely missed the rowdiness of the olden days. 

Saturday, November 2: My mom planned for me and seven of my friends go paint-balling today. Let me tell you, when she first told me about it, I thought she'd lost her mind. I was like, "Uhh, Mom, do you know me? I've never been paint-balling in my life! And I'm a sissy who's afraid that those little shits are gonna hurt!" But she was just so excited about it, so I thought, ok, I'll play along. So it was my two sisters (Laura and Karli) and my friends Meredith, Bob, Teddy, Andrew, and Pat. Four boys and Four girls. And it ended up being SO FRIGGIN' FUN! I was a paintball ninja! I only got hit once, right in the damn hipbone, which definitely left a mark, but I didn't die. It wasn't so bad. And to quote Pitch Perfect, getting hit just "fueled my hate fire" and made me shoot and run and dive like a lunatic. Boom baby! Then after paint-balling for a few hours, we returned to my house where my mom had prepared a FEAST and we started drinking and getting ready for the evening. Then at around 9:00pm, we headed over to the Ramada, where my parents had rented out the bar area and arranged for appetizers and drink specials and unlimited pool table play. About 15 of my friends came to the bar and we hung out there until around 1:30 and then returned back to my house to continue to party until the wee hours of the morning. 

Sunday, November 3: Patti was at it again and cooked a breakfast feast that made me wonder if she invited all of New Hope to join us. We enjoyed breakfast and then my friends went on their way and my mom and I had to drop Karli back at college before we went to go see Josh Groban at the Wells Fargo Bank Center in Philly. Laura, Karli, and I bought the tickets for mom for Mother's Day and we told her to take whoever she wanted: my dad, my grandmother, her sister. But she picked me because I love him and it's my birthday. Lucky me! The tickets were 15th row on the floor. It was unbelievable. I kinda want to marry him. We'd make a super cute couple, right? 

Breakfast, nice and hung over!

Me and my niece, Riley, bright and early.  

SO EXCITED!

I couldn't take one good picture. They all turned out like a blurry mess. Oh well. 

Monday, November 4: Around 12:30, my dad drove me to the Trenton Train Station so that I could take a train into NYC to meet up with Dana to go and see Sleep No More (an avante garde production of Macbeth that I've been dying to see!). When I arrived at Penn Station, I walked over to Dana's new office to pick up her keys and then went into Times Square because hey, why not? Of course, my first stop was the MAC store where I picked up a few things (I've been going through withdrawal since it is so much more expensive to buy it in London!). One of my favorite purchases was the new RiRi lashes that the artist offered to put on for me. SO FREAKIN' GORGEOUS! Perfect for butterfly kisses, right Dana?! Haha.

I made my way over to Dana's to drop off my overnight bag and then hopped in a cab to meet up with LJ and Dana for dinner at Pepe Giallos, which was right by the "theater". After dinner we met up with the girls, Kayla, Sarah, and Katie (my Amsterdam buddies!) and we went into the hotel/theater. So the cool thing about Sleep No More is that it is treated more like a haunted house. There is no traditional seating like a theater. It is six stories of an abandoned hotel that they have transformed into the set of Macbeth and there are scenes going on all over the hotel simultaneously so it's kind of up to you to determine what show you see. You can follow certain characters or just mill around and stumble into whatever you stumble into (which is kind of what I did.) It was phenomenal. An awesome concept. A talented cast. Overall a very cool experience. After the show, Sarah had to leave because she had an early train to catch to DC for work. But the rest of us headed over to the bar to officially celebrate my birthday at the stroke of midnight! We hit a few more bars, including Brother Jimmy's where we were taking shots of Fireball at like 1am on a Monday. My girls are troopers! They all had work the next day! But I had SO MUCH FUN with them, as always. 

Selfie in Times Square!!

Check out these friggin' lashes! Ow ow!

Our "ticket" to get into Sleep No More. Yup, just keeps getting weirder. 

Creepiest picture I've ever been a part of. Just terrifying.

Butterfly kisses baby!

Tuesday, November 5: THE GLORIOUS DAY OF MY BIRTH 30 LONG YEARS AGO! I left with Dana when she left for work to catch an early train home. I thought I was going to go to lunch with my aunt, cousin, and grandmother, but that fell through, so instead my dad and I went for sushi at Fuli! Score! Then, my mom booked me a facial and massage at the spa and I came home to a birthday feast that my mom prepared while I was being pampered. My grandparents, my aunt, my cousin, Laura, Andrew and my parents were all in attendance - the only one missing was Karli, who was still at school, but was with us in spirit and on Face Time! It was a really great day (as they've all been!)

My favorite! I want to eat that right now! 

My poor dad who's never in any pictures and is stuck behind the camera. You're a rockstar, daddio! 

Wednesday, November 6: My last day home. Wow, how did that happen so fast!? For my last day home, I decided to drive out to St. Joe's University to take Karli to lunch before I had to head back. We went to Olive Garden because their salad and breadsticks are ridiculous. Then we strolled around Target for a bit before I took her back to her dorm. It's hard to believe that for the past three years we saw each other every single day since I, you know, was a teacher at her school and then taught her her last two years of high school. We'd drive in together. I was her homeroom advisor senior year. Yadda yadda. It's weird that we don't see each other that much any more. I miss seeing her every day. My little booger is all grown up. Ok, enough of that. I then drove our leftovers over to Laura at Penn so that she'd have a delicious lunch too. (Yeah, I'm kind of an all-star sister!) Then I made it home and and got ready to head over to trivia. It was wonderful to see my trivia buddies! I've missed them a ton. 

Thursday, November 7: My flight back to London was at 9:00pm so I took my grandmother to breakfast at Mom's in Ringoes. I ordered Pumpkin Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast. Ho.Ly.Crap. (Clearly, a diet item.) It was freakin' delicious and I'm not even a big pumpkin-flavor-fanatic. But it was a winner. Then I returned home only to be asked to go on a "field trip" to Tanner Bros farm for ice cream with my cousin. (Are you noticing that like 90% of this whole trip home has revolved around food?!) She came back to the house with me to entertain me while I packed and straightened my room. We ordered pizza and then my parents drove me back to Newark to catch my flight. Little flying bonus: my mom had a pass for the United Club where I rested (maybe too) comfortably until my flight. I was a little worried that I'd miss my flight because I was busy enjoying the yummy snacks and bloody marys! But thankfully I made it and discovered that I had a row all to myself! YAY! 

Bubble Gum ice cream! BEST ICE CREAM EVER! Kristen's is the size of her whole body! 

What a happy surprise. Bloody Marys + Sleeping pill + a whole row to myself = Flight coma!

Friday, November 8: I arrived into Heathrow an hour early, but don't worry, immigration harassed the shit out of me (because obviously, I'm a shady lady) and I got back to my flat around 11am. Gah! Damn you, immigration. They give me a hard time every time I come in to the UK. I am following all of their rules. I am not doing anything illegal. But their laws are written like a child put them together and I am the one who gets caught in the cross hairs. So annoying. Anyway, so by the time I made it home I passed out for like five hours. Just in time to wake up, take a shower, and go meet Matt for dinner at Jamie’s (one of my favorite restaurants in the city!). Oh man, did we eat some freakin' good food. 

Okay, so THAT was my birthday celebration - an event to put all other birthdays to shame! Quite amazing and extravagant and I am so thankful for every minute of it. Life really is good.