april 18, after 7pm

The “big day” has come and gone.  

I bet you all are wondering what tricks Adam had up his sleeves for my late birthday celebration. 

Well, since he knew that all I really wanted for my birthday was for the main “core” – Adam, Patrick, Peter, Emily and I – to have a mini-reunion, he did his best to make that happen.  Adam invited the 3 non-New Yorkers to NYC for the weekend, to celebrate me.  Peter couldn’t make it, but Patrick and Emily hauled ass/drove up here from the VA/MD area on Saturday afternoon.  It was a really pleasant surprise :)  

We had dinner at this insane Indian restaurant: 

Notice the crazy lights in the windows – They were ALL OVER the restaurant (which was the size of a typical 1 bedroom NYC apartment, by the way): 

Talk about pure ridiculousness…  All in all, the food was tasty and cheap.  And did I mention it was BYOB?  And they give out free mango ice cream for dessert?  

But will I ever go back to this psychedelic restaurant?  Hell to the no.  

After dinner, we bummed around the East Village – mostly because we couldn’t decide on a bar to stop into (the “core” is notorious for its inability to make decisions). 

11pm was karaoke time.  Adam reserved a room at this awesome karaoke place for a couple of hours so we could sing our hearts out.  

And that’s exactly what we did.  All of us (even Ryan).  

And it made me so incredibly happy.  

goodbye youth, maybe (a ramble)

What do you think about before your birthday?  On the days leading up to your birthday?  The hours before?

Well, there’s one hour before the anniversary of my birth, and I don’t know what to do or think about.  I want to say tomorrow will just be another normal day, but it won’t.  I want tomorrow to be a normal day.  Except I’m turning 25.   That’s not normal. 

I guess I’m in my last hour of youth.  Or maybe youth ends at 26?  Either way, I’m scared of turning 25.  I don’t feel 25 at all.  I don’t actually feel like I’ve lived for 25 years… until I think about the insanity I’ve been through since birth.  Just thinking about the ridiculousness I’ve been through since 2006 makes me feel old. 

I’m sitting on my couch right now, listening to John Legend and talking to Adam.  This is a pretty typical “school night” for me.  So far, nothing special.  It’s not April 9th yet. 

Now I’m listening to/singing Adele.  I love singing her songs, especially in an empty apartment.  This is a great way to turn 25.  Seriously.  When I turned 22, Linh gave me 5 CDs of Disney songs for my birthday, and Emily, Melissa, Linh and I just sang and danced to Disney music into the early hours of April 9, 2006.  It was fantastic. 

I wonder how many emails from facebook I will get with people writing birthday messages on my wall.  My prediction: 10. 

I’m the worst at planning events for my birthday.  If the weather were nicer, it would be easier to plan something cool. It will be 60 tomorrow, but I’ll be stuck in an office for most of the day.  This weekend, the weather won’t be nice.  It’s not even “April Showers”.  It’s just a mess. 

What is my ideal birthday celebration?  Well, 22 was a good party – I would take the same crowd of people (minus the random folks, and friends of friends) and add Jessica, Laura, Beth and Rob.  Then we would just drink lots of booze, eat great food, and have a grand time.  This would probably take place in a nice park (picnic style) and the weather would be in the high 60s.  At night, there would be a major karaoke jam.  It would be a blast, duh.

And that’s it.  Happy birthday to me… in 3 minutes.

birthdays

On March 10, 2008, I started this blog.  Wow.  It’s kinda hard to believe that I’ve been around for an entire year.  I feel like so much has happened in the past 365 days, but that’s not actually the case.

Let’s see: I got a master’s degree in international development policy (I’m basically awesome), moved back to New York City, and got a job.  That’s about it.  I’ve taken a few trips, but nothing lifechanging.  Life since July 21, 2008 (my first day with a real job) has been mostly lame. 

But anyways, my blog is 1 :) 

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments about my not-so-fulfilling life! You all are super fantastic.  I promise to make things more interesting this year. Maybe. 

To start, this blog is in serious need of a facelift.  I’ve been all over random blog design sites, but I can’t figure anything out.  My job will probably continue to consume my life until May so I might have to put this off until the summer.

my dad

My dad’s birthday is coming up, and every year (right around now) we have the same conversation:

me: Hey – so what do you want for your birthday?

Dad: A boat. No, I want a yacht.

me: Okay.

Dad: Haha - Yeah, I want a really nice yacht so I can go fishing whenever I want.

me: (silence)

Dad: Yeah, don’t buy me anything, Dev.

This year, it was slightly different:

me: Hey – so what do you want for your birthday?

Dad: A yacht.

me: You haven’t bought one yet?!

Dad: Nope, but I still want one.

me: Okay. I’ll get you one. Can I have your Xbox 360?

(my mom picks up the phone)

Mom: No, you can’t have his Xbox – but it’s not like he’s playing it… You know what he really wants? A nintendo Wii…

me: Oh my gosh! I want one of those too!

Dad: Yeah, Dev – they’re nice, right?

me: They are so cool! You can keep the Xbox if you buy me a Wii. Or a macbook.

Mom: You and your father are so needy – you always want something! Goodness. Here’s what you should get your father: the Bourne Supremacy DVD. But make sure you don’t buy it on Blu-Ray… Your father keeps “accidentally” buying Blu-Ray disks even though we don’t have the player for it.

My parents are funny sometimes. First of all, it’s weird that my Dad bought himself an Xbox 360 that he never plays – then he won’t give it to me/my mom won’t let me have it. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Second, why does he want a Wii? He’s such a weirdo.

I can definitely see where I get my personality from. I blame my father for all of my oddities.

I hope we spend his birthday playing the car racer game on Xbox (It will be better than watching Virginia Tech destroy UVA in football). That would be fun.