i too am still itchy like hell with mosquito bites... although i think its fair to say, only about half of mine can be attributed to maine. the rest of mine are likely from taking a post-work swim in the ocean, and then sitting on the beach while the buggies devoured my ankles and calves. ah well. still always worth it. im trying to do more of those kind of things knowing that there is little time left... makes me anxious just thinking about it, truthfully. so-- on to happier notes!
thursday was the birthday, so after a busy start to the week, what with coming back from maine, going to haitian eating-adventures, and then game night on tuesday-- it was completely wonderful & relaxing. i think i did an ounce of work- the boss was out of town for the day, which was pleasant- and the day before (on wednesday) they had given me a birthday cake... below is only a photo of part of the cake (after it had been deliciously ravaged) - i was so surprised when they brought it out bc nicole and chanel had gotten a picture of me as a 2 yr old ballerina and had it put on *top* of the cake. insane! pretty cute, if i must say...
my wistful 2 yr old self
apparently when chanel brought the picture in to the bakery, the little old lady who was going to make the cake said, "que linda! quien es?" to which chanel replied, "my friend." this resulted in her receiving a creepy look. pretty classic.
so work was fine on thursday; got a beautiful flower delivery from ben; and then ashley, anton, justin, rachel & adrian all got me a popcorn of the season club membership; late in the afternoon before we headed out to shuckers for happy hour, we had a champagne and popcorn toast- pretty wonderful. then, shuckers!
amanda, me, kevin, chanel, nicole, brook, and justin on the bottom like a little soccer player
shuckers was awesome; we got there while it was still light out and had a gorgeous view of the water & sunset as we drank our 'firefly' sweet-tea flavored vodka (total trouble). a bunch of people kept showing up and the manager was getting fussy bc apparently we were disturbing their normal configuration - he kept coming over to rearrange tables and chairs- all in all, maybe about 20 of us? a great showing. suddenly it was 9.30pm and everyone was hungry so we headed out- originally we were supposed to go out for steak at vacas gordas- but then somehow it got all switched around, and we went for greek instead- there were two vegetarians amongst us, oh well. this created me as a fussy monster, not because i didnt want greek food- but as soon as we walked into the restaurant, i was over it. the table was too big, we were too spread out, i was sitting right in the middle so thus wasnt part of either halves conversation... and, the worst part, by far was that it went on for 2 hours. yes. two hours. without a proper birthday jameson shot. can you believe it???
anyway, eventually we got out; at that point, the majority of the party went home (of course, right? it was 11.30 on a work night). i might have pitched a fit, and said, 'im walking to sandbar. i dont care if i go alone.' (can you feel the crank?). rachel walked with me the handful of blocks, and justin, ashley, anton & ashley's guests (cousins visiting) drove over.
once at sandbar, i magically was feeling better. jameson all around! ashley, anton & crew peeled off shortly thereafter, leaving justin, rachel & i - chatting w the owner of the bar (valentine), and were approached by a middle-aged man (nelson) who ironically, owns fifi's- the amazing seafood place by my house. nelson was quite a character (from cuba, former coke smuggler, 20 yrs in federal prison...), and then fifi joined us too. nelson kept disclosing random information and facts about himself to us (see the above) and would repeatedly say, "full time! full time disclosure! 100%! full time! its your birthday! we're going to party and celebrate full time!" to which i replied, '"suuure... but what does full time really mean though?" nelson insisted on paying for our entire tab, and buying us birthday shots, which were set on fire and then downed properly and deliciously. rachel only had half of hers, which she explained the next day by saying: annie, it was 2am. why would i do a shot? which in context, was amazing, because i had two of them. ridiculous. then home to bed.
hours later, it was back to work, feeling like crap the entire day- but ending peacefully with a swim in the ocean and gorging on cuban food for dinner... i woke up saturday morning with swollen tired eyes after sleeping 11 much-needed hours; ran on the beach for an hour; had chinese-vegetarian-brunch w rachel; and napped some more. later, met up with chanel, kevin, nicole, brook, tracy, justin, and two of his friends for dinner in the design district at a place called pacific time -- they had this special "yelp" menu prix fixe for $25 which was both an amazing deal and amazingly delish. when i arrived, i had a horrible migraine, to which kevin the doctor recommended we have a shot of jameson. oh, friends! this quickly and properly took away the headache. who knew??
after dinner we headed over to justins for pre-dancing drinks...
me and nicole, striking a pose!
allen, me, justin popping his head randomly and ridiculously into the picture, and adrian. in front? big james and little james.
the proper photo. but it kind of looks like justin is growing out of my armpit...
after hanging there for a while, we went to buck 15 for some proper dancing involving madonna, the cure, the black-eyed peas, poppy, 80s, everything in between-- you would keep thinking, ok, ill sit this one out... and then suddenly it would be an amazing jam that you couldnt refuse. pretty fabulous. the only bad part was when the halter on my dress broke, so carla fashioned it back in place until i found a safety pin squirrelled away in my purse. go, preparedness! (i also apparently had tums, alleve, and excedrine, all shoved in the same random pocket).
the night progressed with dancing, taking shoes off, more dancing, putting shoes back on, and then realizing it was 4am and time to sleep... this morning i surprisingly felt fine, just absolutely starving, and had a rather lazy day, which i guess i needed... took a crazy run in the rain through all these bushes and folliage along the beach, got sopping wet, and cooked a ton of food for the week. heres to another wonderful weekend, and for friends that made both my pre-birthday, birthday, and post-birthday an amazing time to remember. yes, that means all of you!
xoxoxo
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