I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

Day: 387

Photo taken on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 in our Manga Dining room at 1059pm.

Steve really knows how to shake things up on his birthday.

We're out shopping for Steve's birthday presents in Sunrise Mall, in Suncoast to be exact, when the strange event happens. I'm looking at the anime section as Steve moves onto the next section when the wall starts violently shaking. It's one of those fake walls stores put up to separate the back from the front so I figure the construction from the next store down is making it do that. I point to it as the videos clatter around, "Steve this wall is shaking." He barely spares it a glance as he turns his focus back to what he was looking at before I interrupted him. I shrug and move on to a non-shaking wall.

Five minutes later we leave the store and my phone starts blowing up with a few texts. They're from Heather and Jenn and they're concerned about me and my family. Puzzled I read the texts over.

Virginia just had an earthquake.

...

Virginia just had an earthquake?!

I immediately get on the horn but cannot reach Moma or Kim and would have tried Preston if he had a cell phone to try. Eventually I get my dad at the Surge and I ask him what's on the news, was it major, has Richmond been swallowed by shifting tectonic plates? He has no answers for me but he believes everything is fine. For hours I worry about Moma in that big house by herself. I worry that furniture might have pinned her to the floor. I worry that The Eagle has fallen off its perch and smashed into a thousand little unsalvageable pieces.

Finally I get in touch with Moma who happened to be in the car when it happened and returned to a house with nothing out of place. Kim seemed to experience the worst of it and besides being shaken up, I am happy to report she is fine. And Preston? It was nap time. Slept right through it. That's the way to be, Little Man!


Oh and I know what you're thinking...why aren't you at work, young lady? Well according to my mom's Birthday Philosophy, everyone gets to have off on their birthday. And being that I get way jealous when Steve is home from work and I am not, I take the day too.

Gam-Gam

Day: 384

Photo taken on Saturday, August 20, 2011 while having dessert in Grandma's kitchen in Whitestone, NY. (Pictured from my big ass head: Charlie, Steve, Daddio, and Grandma)

Tonight we are celebrating Grandma's 85th birthday! Wu-hoo! You go, Grandma Z.!

We make a reservation at Ponticello's in Astoria but when we arrive our table is nowhere to be found. After waiting around for 15 minutes, we decide that their clientele are not leaving anytime soon so dad demands we be seated in the empty room to the left. It is here that we can be as loud as we want since the entire time we're here not one other patron dines in the vicinity of us. (I guess Grandma was being too rowdy.) So eventually we have to move the party here and after Grandma settles down, we're able to serve the rainbow cookie birthday cake.

Happy Birthday, Grandma! I hope you had a fun time with us!

^_\

Celebrate good times, COME ON!

Day: 376

Photo taken on Friday, August 12, 2011 having homemade cake in the TDM kitchen at 925pm. (Pictured from left: Me, Kimberly, Steve, cake, Preston moving, Moma, and Daddio)

Moma has a philosophy about birthdays. She believes everyone should get one day a year to do whatever they want with whomever they want. The day should be special and all about the birthday boy or girl. I fully endorse this idea and have taken her advice through the years. It starts on one particular birthday as I am sitting in the medical records room in a dour mood when suddenly Moma calls. "Why are you working on your birthday?" I sit there in silence for a moment and ponder this. Yeah...why am I sitting here on my birthday? I promptly grab my things and leave so Moma can take me to lunch and then veg out on the couch to watch a cheesy romantic comedy together. Ahhhh, Birthday Bliss.

So even though Steve's birthday is a few weeks off, Moma decides to give him an early celebration since she won't be in NY until September. I think this is very nice of my parents, to give Hubs special attention when we come down tonight. Everyone needs something like this every now and then, cheers you up to feel loved. Plus little shindigs like these rile up Preston and he gets silly. I love silly Preston:

But Your Friends Are Hungry

Day: Three Hundred and Fifteen

Photo taken on Sunday, June 12, 2011 with Jenn in the living room at 856pm.

There are a few friends that miss the get together last night and still want to celebrate me turning 29. Jenn and Mike bring over an amazingly delicious Friendly's Reeses cake since they know how much I LOVE peanut butter!!! It is really nice of everyone to come out another night to chill and laugh and be subjected to anime all over again.

Love you guys!

^_\

You Say It's Your Birthday

Day: Three Hundred and Fourteen

Photo taken on Saturday, June 11, 2011 in the kitchen at 1129pm. (Pictured from my thumbs up: Jess, Michelle, Chris Reed looking aghast, Kristen, and Charlie)

Nothing says "Birthday Party" quite like cooking crabs alive and then ripping them apart to feed your guests.

If you would like to read about all the other events prior to the savage killing, Michelle wrote a very nice post of the birthday extravaganza here.

Happy Birthday To Me

Day: Three Hundred and Twelve

Photo taken on Thursday, June 9, 2011 in the downstairs portion of Arturo's on York Avenue in New York, NY at 742pm. (Pictured from me to the left and around: Tania, Armando, Cassandra, Valerie, James, Sonji, Julia, Peggy, and Dorrette)

The Surge is going all out to celebrate my birthday this evening (two days early) and I am loving every minute of it!


When I come home from college, I make the decision to not celebrate my birthday anymore. I figure, 'eh, I'm turning 22, think I'm getting too old to make my friends go out or come over for a Harry Potter or Spiderman cake, maybe it's time I grow up and try to pass by the day without anyone noticing'...but Maeve won't let me (which I don't blame her because celebrating birthdays are fun). When I tell her my plan for not having a plan for my birthday that year she refuses to hear any of it. She marches down my basement and proceeds to type out an evite for a BBQ on June 11. A few days later I have a boatload of people showing up for my birthday BBQ so my parents take me to Price Club and I purchase a ton of food and Michelob Ultra (Beer-Water) only for the birthday to come and NO ONE show up. There are about five people who end up making the day special for me yet I couldn't stop feeling like a giant loser. People forget about me when I go to school in Colorado (though I'm sure they will say I abandoned them but isn't that what AIM was for then? To keep in touch?) and I guess responding to my party and not showing up is to teach me some kind of lesson? It is cruel so I swiftly drop many "friends" and my dad learns to like the Beer-Water over Coors Light through the course of the summer since it takes up our whole fridge.

I then vow to never celebrate my birthday again.

But each year, my birthday isn't forgotten, people text me a few weeks in advance, "what are we doing?" and I try to shy away from it and pretend it's not going to happen. I still fear a repeat of 2004, getting excited for a big event only to have no one show up. It was embarrassing and even though I played it off with sarcasm, it still hurt. Last year, I tell people, "I'm going to see the Karate Kid because it opens on my birthday and I like Jackie Chan. You are welcome to come if you so desire." Too afraid to invite people, I leave it in their hands, and on June 11th, my friends and family surround me in several rows of the Farmingdale Multiplex. And it is a start to a great birthday weekend.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Mwando comes into my office and asks what we are doing for my birthday. I am floored. How on earth does he know about my birthday? I smile and shrug, leaving it in his hands to do what he wishes. He converses with Peggy, Bossdad, and Dr. Zong and anyone else interested in celebrating my 29th year and here I am, surrounded by my fun-loving coworkers and great Italian food. We are loud and rowdy and the drinks are flowing and the conversation has our laughter carrying up the staircase into the main room above us. The party can end here and I would be thrilled that this is my birthday celebration but it doesn't end at Arturo's.

It continues on to Brandy's, a piano bar on East 84th Street. It is here where I consume way too many fruity drinks and sing aloud to almost every song the young, talented, (and cute!) piano player bangs out. After he and the other bar patrons sing Happy Birthday to me, he begins taking requests on napkins. Of course I ask for my two favorite Billy Joel songs and he honestly tells me he doesn't know the words to Zanzibar but he can proudly fake it. I laugh and tell him any Billy Joel song is fine and he lapses into Scenes From An Italian Restaurant. I think I loudly proclaim that I love him several times through the night because everything I request, he plays. He even treats us to Mary Jane's Last Dance and I silently forgive him for skipping one of my favorite lyrics in the song. The fact he knows all of these artists is astounding and I give him credit for remembering such a variety of different tunes.

Finally, around two, Bossdad drags me out of there and back to his apartment where I wipe off the remnants of my make up and fall onto the couch in an exhausted heap. I am very thankful for everyone coming out to celebrate my birthday tonight! I couldn't ask for a better start to my last year of my twenties! So much fun!

^_\

Cuttlefish?

Day: Two Hundred and Ninety Four

Photo taken on Sunday, May 22, 2011 outside of Rachel's Waterside Grill in Freeport, NY at 934pm. (Picture taken from the sidewalk garbage can: Me, Moma, Grandma Z., Charlie, Daddio, Father Bill, and Steve)

We are celebrating Charlie's 31st birthday tonight (a little early but who's counting?) and before he arrives (a little late but who's watching the clock?) I check out the menu and point out what he will most likely will order. It's the most expensive dish on the menu which he has a habit of ordering. It started back when he was a kid when he went out to dinner one night with Grandma Z. and Pop-Pop. He couldn't have been in middle school yet but there he was, menu propped up in front of him, looking at it with determination in his eyes. When the waitress came to take his order he told her he would like the lobster. Pop-Pop nearly choked. "You'll have a hamburger!"

Sure enough, once Charlie gets here and orders his usual coffee, he decides on the twin lobster tails stuffed with crabmeat. Steve hears him order it but I don't catch it since I am debating over which fish I want blackened-salmon or cod- so he nudges me and lets me know Charlie is going for the lobster. I smile. Of course he is; not only is it his birthday dinner so he gets whatever he wants but my older brother also has impeccable taste when it comes to food. Now movies on the other hand...  ;-P

UFC Fight Night

Day: Fifty Five

Photo taken on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at Buffalo Wild Wings in Deer Park, NY around 11pm.

This is Steve's cousin, Jenn's husband, Mike*. Steve is convinced we are having an affair...that involves food. Mike shares the same love that I have for delectable treats and mouthwatering entrees. Mike can come into a room and whisper "cheesy gordita crunch" and I will hear him and announce to the room we're going to Taco Bell. Him and Jenn will text me pictures of said taco goodness or interesting creations like the Donut Burger which sends me into a tizzy since I can't be there with them to engorge myself. Tonight we feast on my favorite dish ever, buffalo wings, to celebrate Mike's 30th.

Happy Birthday!

*From now on I'll refer to both Jenn and Mike as my cousins because they're awesome and I'm calling them my own.

Cookie Monster

Day: Twenty Two

Photo taken on Monday, August 23, 2010 at 810pm in the kitchen.


Right now marks the closing of the birthday weekend for Steve. He is now 28, has a bunch of new video games and comic books to tide him over for awhile, and a belly full of fine food. We're ending the night with freshly baked cookies and a Jet Li flick. Who could ask for more? (besides taking today off and missing the whole LIRR debacle...SCORE!)

Fiesta Burger

Day: Twenty One

Photo taken on Sunday, August 22, 2010 around 8pm at Bobby Flay's Burger Palace in the Smith Haven Mall. (Please don't let Frankenberger know I cheated on them tonight)


Steve's birthday weekend continues (third night and counting) with another dinner but with just yours truly because we so smartly take tomorrow off for the birthday weekend to carry on (his birthday is actually tomorrow). It's a little ridiculous how we celebrate each other's birthday for days on end and this all starts back in 2006 when my birthday lands on a Sunday. On the Friday before, my partner in crime in the classroom, Keri, throws me a surprise bash at another teacher's house. I'm completely floored that they are actually able to get one over on me and that all the staff comes despite the monsoon outside and the impending teaching tests we all have the following morning. The next day I celebrate with more friends, Sunday my family throws a shindig in the backyard, and then Monday my classroom busts out a birthday cake because on Friday it was part of the plan to look like everyone had forgotten about my special day.


So that's how birthday weekends were formed. It's going to really suck next year for Steve when it lands on a Tuesday and no weekend is involved at all.