Birthday update

Kari has come and gone, Tessa has come and gone; I think it's official to say that my birthday celebrations are over. It was a very excellent couple of days - although I don't think I've ever had a birthday I haven't liked (double negative alert!). Maybe it's just that I like my life most of the time so the only place to go is up.

Wednesday: Mom and I had birthday breakfast over Skype, which was nice. My grandpa used to take my mom out for breakfast on her birthday before school, and so my mom did the same thing with us when we grew up. I'm not sure when she started doing it, but it's lots of fun. She tells about when I was born, which pretty much consists of "my water broke and we barely made it to the hospital in time! I was admitted at 6:02 and you were born at 6:07" or something like that. I was a fast baby.

I did some stuff around school, picked up Kari at the airport and then drove to the arena for the Spice Girls. Had a nice Chipotle burrito (chicken fajita... I usually get steak but the guy gave me the wrong kind but I like chicken so it was ok) and almost immediately got really bad stomach pain, which lasted throughout the concert. Rocked out to the Spice Girls with Kari and the thousands of other late teen-early twenties girls who were 13 when the Spice Girls were popular. The concert started 30 minutes late (lame) and some of the girls who were sitting on the ground floor were nice enough to dance to the loudspeaker music for entertainment. It was super entertaining when they decided to do really explicit, vulgar dance moves so the whole back of the arena could watch. There's nothing better than watching two girls pretend to have sex for thousands of people... Ok, maybe there is. I'd say almost anything. Talk about the need to perform for people to gain a sense of self worth. It was so ridiculous to have these girls slap each other's asses for literally thousands of people, most of who cheered. I can't say I'm surprised, though, considering at one point during the concert Scary Spice locked up one of her backup dancers beneath a ladder and proceeded to give him a ladder dance, pushing her crotch in his face and ended it by pantomiming oral sex. Oh, the people we choose to emulate and make role models of...

After the concert Kari and I drove back to New Haven, my stomach still hurting through the whole concert and drive back. By the time we made it home, my abdomen had hurt for 6+ hours. I decided to go to the emergency room in case it was my appendix. I ended up sitting in the hospital for another 4 hours until 5 or 5:30 AM. It wasn't my appendix, but they think it was gall stones, which does fit with my family history. Apparently it comes on after you eat a fatty meal and can last for several hours. I got some medicine, so that's good in case it happens again. Kari had her laptop with her, so it was funny when the doctors gave their diagnosis because after they left the room, we immediately looked it up on wikipedia. I had to take it easy on food for the past couple of days, but it seems to be ok now. Kari and I can't go to concerts together anymore because I always get sick. I had mono when we saw Queen, I had gallstones when we saw the Spice Girls... I'd hate to see what I get if we go again.

Thursday: We slept in late from the long night before, went grocery shopping and to the liquor store for some wine and beer. I had an afternoon class, and Kari met me downtown after my class was done for a checkup with my doctor - he said everything's peachy. We had dinner at this good vegetarian restaurant downtown and then went home and watched The Prestige (awesome movie). Kari fell asleep so she missed most of it. She's lame that way, though.

Friday: I worked in the morning and had an afternoon meeting for V-Day and the Div school's production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer. It's going to be really cool. Kari and I had lunch with some friends, chilled out at my apartment and then met my friend Becca for dinner and a play at the Yale Rep. We saw The Evildoers, which was good but kinda weird at the end. Weird in a good way, I'd say. I feel like I'd have to watch it again to understand it fully, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Saturday: Low-key morning and afternoon, and then Tessa came into town around 5. She brought delicious cupcakes (not all gone yet - there are 3 1/2 of them I have to get rid of somehow...). We went over to my friend Ryan's house for a shared dinner of deliciousness - good chili! Sarah and Ryan/Duff (Ryan's friend) had a chili cookoff. I can't officially endorse one chili or the other, unfortunately. You have to let the people decide on that. Anyway, I made a cake and there were candles and singing and wine and beer... very good times. Lots of laughing, so I think that's a good sign. After the gathering with friends, Tessa, Kari, Marshall and I went to Archie Moore's, which is now my new favorite neighborhood bar. I might even have to move closer to officially declare it my neighborhood bar. Plus they have Smithwicks on tap, which makes me very excited. When we walked up, there was a Div school student standing outside and he said, "I know you, you're that sexy librarian." I thought it was cute. When he left, he kissed my hand, since I'm the birthday girl. The real question is going to be if he remembers it in the morning, since he was more than a little inebriated. Tessa, Kari, Marshall and I had a couple rounds and lots of fun. They're good people. I never know how people from different parts of my life are going to interact, but since I generally choose top notch, quality people as friends, it's no problem. I made some comment to Tessa that of all my friends here, I think Marshall would fit in best with my friends from home and she agreed. I think it's because he likes drinking a lot. We do too. In a good way. He remembered to bring back my Sports Night (I lent it to him literally months ago... September or October probably) and he lent me Six Feet Under, second season. I can pick up where I left off my freshman year of school, watching with Sarah and Jenna and Amy.

Sunday: Made some delicious cream cheese french toast for Kari and Tessa. It was quite excellent, I must say. They took the train back to NYC and Tessa helped Kari figure out how to get to JFK by train. Kari should get there fine, since she's quite the navigator. If not, she can come back and live with me. I'd be ok with that. This next week is a reading week, so I don't have any div school classes. I have two classes downtown that aren't off for reading week, but the professor for one of them is going out of the country this week - so canceled! I only have one class (and work - gross but good moneywise) so I'll be spending most of the week in my sweatpants watching West Wing and Six Feet Under. And, you know, doing homework and stuff. But mostly sweatpants and tv on dvd. Trust me on this one.

Now... Birthday pictures! The first three are from the concert and the last one is in the hospital waiting room. Lots of fun!