Eat, Drink, Miss the Train, & Be Merry!

Birthdays are always an interesting experience for me. Always. Sometimes they're bad interesting--like when my dog died 4 days before my birthday then my great grandmother died the week after. Sometimes they're outrageous, like the year I celebrated in NYC and this guy bit me on my shoulder [no bullshit!]--but I still had a GREAT time! This year's birthday experience was no different, as it had its share of dramatic events. But regardless of those events, my birthday overwhelmingly AWESOME. Thank you to all my family, friends, and random strangers/potential new friends who made it one I'll always remember :-)

Remember my networking event? It was great! I made some great connections, met some new potential friends, [which as you may know is really hard to do once you get out of school], and shamelessly flirted from time to time [remember there were drink specials...]

Alihah and I had such a great time, in fact, that we left the venue later than we should've, got caught up tax day post office traffic, and I missed the last train out of DC! Alihah had to drive me all the way back to bmore, then turn around and go back to Arlington--[that's what friends are foooor!]--and somehow we both made it into work the next day!

Friday, I found out I got my first blog award! Maddy from The Maddy Chronicles has bestowed upon me a Best Blogger Award! I am beaming from ear to ear! Thank You Maddy!! :-D

I'd like to thank the academy...(insert inappropriate Kathy Griffin style joke here) [I'm sorry Jesus, you know I love you, but it was funny!]

Saturday was my Birthday Dinner. Normally, I have gone to some club and drank/danced the night away--with mixed results.  This year, I wanted something low key and easy to execute, not because I'm getting old, but because I'm not finished paying for my expensive ass amazing awesomely fantastic vacation. And I'd rather not resort to go-go dancing at the local gay bar in order to do so...then again some extra cash is always a good thing when I'm in Europe...but I digress...

Dress Reveal...

Just because I was only having a dinner didn't mean I couldn't dress to drop jaws, lol...
I owe a big THANK YOU to Jonesy over at The Bliss List for putting me on to www.asos.com where I got this dress for a price that was almost too good be true!

we laughed...
OK...it turns out I don't have any great pics of us laughing...but I know somebody does











we drank...

we ate...

Tapas is one of my favorite dining experiences: small plates and lots of choices. We dined at Pazo, which in my opinion is the swankiest eatery in Baltimore.  Its a huge converted warehouse space, the food is always on point, and the drinks will get ya drunk! Its one of the few places in Baltimore to see and be seen in. I recommend the veal and pork empanadas and the scallion bruschetta with goat cheese!

We drank some more

We laughed and ate a lot more...

a good time was had by all!

So I thought that 2X was going to be "my year." Well life didn't work out the way I thought it would [big surprise] but I was still a good year, I learned a LOT about myself, and all that jazz...

Well, I'm a year older, certainly a year wiser, and I can't wait to see what 2x+1 will bring...