Happy birthday to me!

Last night was my birthday party at Golden Temple. It's becoming a tradition at this point. Every year I think maybe I should switch it up and try something different but everyone seems to have a really good time.

Let's be honest though, the food is also a major factor in choosing Golden Temple every year.

This is just the appetizers!

After dinner it was time to hit the dance floor. The DJ was pretty good and played all of our requests.

Party time in the E Room

No one would let me pay for my food or drinks despite me trying to pay a few times. They spoiled me with cards, gifts and balloons. What can I say? I have amazing friends.

My mother decided to join the festivities as well. She wanted to get out of the house for a bit in the hopes that her new cat Brighten aka Brighty would come out from under the couch and eat. The good news is he did. He's still hiding most of the time but hopefully he'll get settled in soon and start coming out more.

Mom and daughter

On our way home

I woke up this morning a bit tired but otherwise feeling fine despite all the drinks consumed. I'm declaring the night a success.

Eat it and weep

The rage I felt when I saw this on the T. It was a full train, no empty seats and people standing. Move your wine! I tend to go the passive aggressive route so I shot some dirty looks her way and posted this photo on Twitter and Facebook. The internet appeased me by validating my outrage. Of course I could have just asked her to move the wine so I could sit but I'm not really the confrontational type. So internet shaming for your winespreading it is.

Early birthday dinner date with Derek at the Abbey. I wanted everything on the menu. I went with the roasted cod with a potato scallion pancake in a shallot cream sauce. No regrets in that choice. I could have eaten two servings.

After dinner drinks at the Tavern. I love sitting in the window seats and people watching. I don't remember taking this picture of Derek but I like it.

We bought beer and wine at the store on the way home but didn't end up drinking it. Probably for the best as it was a school night.

I'm being good and staying in tonight making blog posts in preparation for my birthday party tomorrow, which is my actual birthday. I'm going to eat so much Chinese food, it's going to be glutinous glorious.

Birthday fancy at the Charlesmark

Yesterday was birthday and I wanted to get a little fancy. Time for champagne.

Derek demonstrates the "pinky out" technique.

Mmmmm.....bubbly.

Time to mix it up with a cocktail.

A+ for ambiance.

In case you're worried that I'm a bougie snob now, I should let you know that my dinner was a double cheeseburger and fries at the Pour House washed down with some Bud Light.

I'm a spring baby today

The poor trees think it's time for spring. Not yet buddy. Winter has just taken a little bit of a break.

This is the warmest birthday that I can remember. Usually mother nature treats me to a massive blizzard or subzero temperatures on my birthday. I feel like a spring baby! 32 years young.

Birthday party at Golden Temple

The E Room early in the evening. I prefer to call it the spaceship though. Later most of the tables are moved to make room for dancing.

Cousins! Alexis, myself and Lauren. I'm not drunk (that came later) just squinty from the flash.

DJ with CDs was replaced by DJ with bucket hat. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. I will be sure to report back when I find out.

I wish I had more photos but I left my digital camera at home and my phone was dying. You'll just have to imagine me dancing my butt off.

Birthday celebrations, Going Clear and a facehugging Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Today is also Derek's birthday. We stayed at the Hotel Commonwealth Saturday night to celebrate. I normally take a photo of the hotel room but I forgot to this time. It was a very nice room and we enjoyed our stay. We watched Going Clear in the hotel room before brunch.

Scientology is more horrible than I realized. I knew the "church" was abusive but they actually have labor camps for adults and children. The "church" also bullied and threatened the IRS to get their tax exemption status. If you've watched the documentary let me know what you thought.

So that was our Easter. No egg hunting involved although we did have eggs ate brunch.

Look for the giant giraffe

Today is the big St. Patrick's Day Parade in Southie. I went one time a few years ago and I'll never go again. It's not worth the hassle of getting there and dealing with the drunk crowds. Thank God the parade is nowhere near where I live.

Last night Derek and I journeyed to the other side of the river to Somerville for my old roommate Todd's birthday. The T ride took forever due to a disabled B line train but what else is new? We finally made it to the new Assembly Square station and attempted to find food. Every restaurant was packed. One restaurant had an hour and forty-five minute wait. Yea, no thank you. We finally got a table at Tony C's and showed up to the party late but we made it.

Todd and Julie coordinated their outfits but Julie is not pleased.

I was very impressed by Julie's doodling skills.

Todd lives near Legoland and had mentioned a giant giraffe as a landmark to find his apartment building. Of course I needed a picture with it.

Our trip home home was quicker but full of your usual late night drunk folk. We ordered late night pizza (calzone with no sauce for me) which I'm paying for with some heartburn today. That's what I get for eating before bed.

It's hard work being the princess of the bar

Golden Temple is my favorite place to have my birthday party. If you know me at all you know I love Chinese food. I could probably live off egg rolls - good egg rolls though, not those disgusting ones you find at a Chinese buffet in Orlando Florida that gives your food poisoning, and hell to the NO on some gluten free or vegan egg rolls. Give me all your gluten and pork please. My poor brother can not find good Chinese food in Florida. I feel your pain bro, well I would if I didn't live in the land of delicious Chinese food. Golden Temple is like eating on a space ship. The USS Fried Wanton. Mmmmmmm. I like some ambiance when I'm stuffing my face. After I eat all the things I'm going to dance my ass off. This is when I get to enjoy some grade A hot mess people watching.

You've got two groups here - the drunk college students and the drunk middle-aged folk. Ok and then me and my friends (also drunk). There's a lot of awkward white people dancing happening and that is my people watching jam. The college students are swapping their germs in scorpion bowls and grinding against each other and the middle-agers are drinking their wine and martinis while doing some weird shuffling spins. At what age do you stop grinding on your date on the dance floor and start trying to spin them like your on Dancing With the Stars?

The DJ is an old white dude and his song choices range from the Jackson 5 to any song you would have heard at a club circa the early 2000s. I once went up and asked him to play a current popular song and he was like "yea I don't have that CD yet." Have we time traveled back to 1999? Get itunes like every other shitty DJ. I guess I can't complain because there's no cover at GT and he does have a lot of Britney. At least I know what to expect from him.

Now before you think that I'm hatin on the wine swilling 45 year olds, I'm not. I can't because that will probably be me someday. When I was a kid and I would go to the dance at the campground I was so embarrassed by the drunk adults. I'm trying to pick up some 13 year old sk8ter bois and you're totally ruining my tween game mom! I remember my uncle said to me "one day you'll be the drunk adult at the campground dance" and my uncle was totally right. I do have one advantage in that I can actually dance and you don't just suddenly lose that skill. When you grow up around a lot of Latinos you pick up a hip swivel or two. Because I know I'm a good dancer I like to go all out, which I'm sure would probably be terrifying to the 21 year olds when I'm 45.

My friends really went all out with the birthday gifts. My cousin got me a blow up crown which I wore all night. People kept saying "after you princess" and asking if they could touch the crown. It's hard work being the princess of the bar. I think I could get used to the royal treatment and should probably wear a crown more often.

There was one young dude that kept insisting I was 23. I told him I was 31 but he was having none of that. If he saw me on the dance floor he'd run over to me and yell "TWENTY THREEEEE" and then run off.

Derek missed out because he has the swine flu or something. We're like some weird celibate couple kissing each other on the cheek so I don't get sick.

So birthday celebrated, princess achievement unlocked, good times had by all but especially by this faux 23 year old.

I'm 31 today which is like 80 in Southerner years.

Today is my 31st birthday. I try to take a birthday selfie every year so when I'm really old I can weep over photos of "younger Ginny". This is why I'm all for selfies. We're not getting any younger so we might as well selfie it up. I plan on aging beautifully though so don't worry about me.

As a birthday treat the MBTA gifted me another miserable commute. Apparently the trains just "can't even" with this winter crap (I'm still young and hip and know the lingo you guys). It's times like these that I wish I lived in the South. I have to remind myself that the cold weather will pass and I'm not built to handle living in the south.

So here are my reasons why I won't move from this liberal frozen hell hole.

1. I would get fat. I'm already trying to lose 10-15 pounds so my esophagus doesn't erode away. Do you know how many cherry limeades I had from Sonic when I was in Texas? Enough to give diabetes to three people. There's also gravy and butter on everything. "Would you like a dab of cheddar mashed potato with your gallon of gravy?" "Why yes thank you. You can just pour that right into my mouth." Gravy is a breakfast food in the South. I mean biscuits and gravy is delicious but a heart attack first thing in the morning is very inconvenient. After consuming all this gravy I can't even walk it off because I'd have to walk in the street. Where are the sidewalks?

2. Chain restaurants. Listen I love me some unlimited salad and breadsticks at the Olive Garden once in a while but sometimes you just want something different, something that doesn't have five locations in one square mile. I'm sorry but a girl can't live off cheddar biscuits from Red Lobster.

3. I don't trust your plants. I'm sorry but is this Jumanji? I don't like plants that look like they could eat my face. And don't even get me started about snakes falling out of trees.

plant death trap

4. Politics. I don't think I need to elaborate too much. I'm not a conservative.

5. Religion. I'm not religious and if you are that's ok. As my co-worker Lilly says "you do you and I'll do me". Around here no one asks me if I go to church and I don't ask them. In the south everyone will ask you if you go to church. Like a true heathen I often lie and say "sometimes": they don't have to know that my sometimes means when I attend a funeral or a wedding.

6. I'm in my 30s, unmarried and have no kids. If you are childless and unmarried at my age people in the south will look at you like you're one of those poor dogs in that Sarah Mclachlan commercial. I actually had someone say they would pray for me. Please don't pray for me to get pregnant. You can pray for my soul but leave my uterus out of it.

The Northeast isn't perfect by any means. Massachusetts refuses to let us have happy hour. That's just not even right! I should have the freedom to get drunk cheaply at certain hours if I want to. People can be real assholes here too. You could fall down a set of stairs and everyone would act like nothing happened. In the south you'd have everyone within a mile radius asking if you're ok. So I guess what I'm saying is winter sucks but I really love Thai food and not having to talk about babies all the time.

The guessing game

It's time to play what is causing Ginny's sore throat? Is it (a) acid reflux or (b) the beginning of a cold? I'm trying to think back to any offending food I might have eaten and I'm giving all my recently sick co-workers the side eye. Colds spread like the plague in my office.

I'm leaning more towards this being a cold and I'll tell you why: my birthday is Wednesday and it's pretty much a tradition that I will be sick on my birthday. The last couple of years I remember having miserable colds around my birthday. If it's a cold I just want to get it over with now before my birthday party on Saturday. I'll also be keeping my diet as heartburn friendly as possible in case it is my reflux. I'm too young to have a stomach this old.

I need to shovel my car out when I get home from work today so I'm sure that will help the situation greatly if this is indeed a cold. Please feel free to light a Lady of Guadalupe candle for me so I will be fully recovered for my birthday party on Saturday.

The best birthday ever.

I am not exaggerating when I say my 30th birthday was my best birthday ever.

On my actual birthday (February 4th) I was sick with a really bad cold. One of my co-workers made me a champagne cake and Derek made me soup since I was sick. Not the best actual birthday day but you can't control when you get a cold (despite my washing my hands all the freaking time).

Friday I was planning on staying in since my actual party was on Saturday. Derek convinced me to go to the Green Briar for dinner and I agreed since I'd been cooped up all week. After we finished eating Derek quickly asked for the check which I thought was weird because I was planning on hanging out and having a few drinks. I was actually a little annoyed because he was the one who insisted on going out in the first place.

Then our friend Juston showed up at the bar and told me to get my purse and put on my coat. I looked at Derek confused but Derek just told me to have fun and took off. Juston drove me to my friend Kerri's house where a bunch of my lady friends had planned a surprise birthday party.

I could only imagine the look on my face when I came in and saw my two cousins there as well. I was not expect that and it was a nice surprise. There was one other surprise.... a stripper. I could not stop laughing from embarrassment. We invited him to stay for cake after the "performance". He was very nice and into sewing and law.

There are photos but I'm not posting them on my blog. Sorry folks.

I was absolutely surprised. I've always wanted a surprise party but you can't tell people that! So thank you friends for a great night and my first surprise party.

Saturday night was birthday round 2 at Golden Temple followed by Washington Square Tavern. I can share pictures from that.

Todd: "Am I finally going to make it on your blog?"

You've made it Todd! Welcome to the big leagues. All the cool people are on my blog.

 Germana is too cool for me.

Derek and Andy also too cool for me.

Cousin photo! Let's all smile the same.

Derek was supposed to smile. Nope...

I don't know what's happening here....

Tavern time at the end the night.

So far 30 is great. I love it! I'm lucky to have such great friends and a great boyfriend even though he won't smile for my birthday photo.

P.S. Yes Derek knew about the stripper. He was asked to help pick out the stripper but he passed.

Juan Pablo is pretty much the worst Bachelor ever. This post was written with a lot of VapoRub.

I'm blogging while inhaling the lovely fumes of Vicks VapoRub. It's also my 30th birthday!! I had plans to go out tonight with Derek but instead he will be making me soup and I will be resting on the couch. My birthday bash with all my friends is on Saturday so I better rest up.

I didn't do much yesterday except sleep and go through a whole box of tissues but I did watch the bachelor and oh boy do I have a few things to say.

Juan Pablo is the worst Bachelor in the history of the show. He seemed like a nice guy but he manipulates the woman on the show and uses his daughter as an excuse for anything he feels uncomfortable with.

At one point he said that he wouldn't kiss anymore girls because he was afraid of what his daughter would think. First of all his daughter is 4 so why would she be watching this show? Second of all he continues to kiss the women he wants to kiss and then tells any woman he doesn't want to kiss he can't because of his daughter. Literally right after he tells a woman he can't kiss her because of his daughter he makes out with another girl because "can't resist her".

The worst was last night's episode when Claire snuck off to his room in Vietnam and asked him to go swimming in the ocean at 4 a.m. Juan Pablo agreed without a second thought. The next day he regrets this and says they "went too far". He then has a talk with Claire and uses his daughter as an excuse and makes her feel guilty claiming once again that he has to think about what his daughter will see. How about you admit that you feel guilty but that it's not her fault because you willing participated!

If he picks another woman at the end beside Claire how will she feel that they got it on in the ocean? Pretty pissed off I'm going to guess. And there is no doubt that they had sex that night from Claire's comments alone.

I'm not a big fan of Claire but she did not deserve the guilt he was laying on her.

I won't even get into his remarks about having a gay bachelor. That was a huge strike one in my book.

I would also like to point out that Derek walked by while I was watching and said "wait is that Juan Pablo? I thought he was Spanish?" I said that he is Spanish. Derek does not believe me but this also adds to my theory that the Bachelor producers picked the whitest Spanish guy they could find.

Ok back to looking up all the uses for Vicks VapoRub. Does it really work for pimples?

You can't ruin my birthday week car vandals.

The last couple of days have been full of ups and downs.

My birthday is on Tuesday so obviously the celebration has already begun. Some people don't like to celebrate their birthdays, I love celebrating my birthday. Since my co-worker Lilly and I have close birthdays we went out after work on Thursday to celebrate.

Patrick always puts our tab under "Lawyers in Love"

Finally got a photo with Patrick! He is so nice. One of the best bartenders in Boston.

I got home and passed out. Derek wakes me up at 2:30 in the morning saying "you're not going to like this". I look out the window and my car mirror is hanging off. I wasn't the only one though. Three drunk guys were going down the street and kicking mirrors off of cars. They got a lot of them. Luckily my neighbor across the street saw them and followed them down the street calling the cops. They were arrested. It's just so infuriating that people who do this.

A police report was filed on behalf off everyone who had a damaged car so I don't have to go and fill one out. I am going to pick up a copy of the report and see where I can get with insurance.

At least the wire connections are ok.

Besides the car thing my aunt has been in and out of the hospital and they think it is pancreatic cancer. My mom has been having a hard time with this but is holding it together. Her boyfriend also has cancer and has not been feeling well. Family members have been doing the best they can to make sure my aunt has meals made for her and company. They had to switch her meds and she's schizophrenic so it's best to have someone around to make sure she's ok.

It's been a weird week. That's the best way I can describe it.

I will celebrate your birthday.

Happy birthday Derek.

I know you don't like to tell people it's your birthday but since only a few people read this blog I hope you don't mind.

I know you also don't really care about celebrating your birthday but I love birthdays and I'm glad you're letting me celebrate yours.

So happy birthday and thank you for taking awkward Easter brunch photos with me.

early 20s vs late 20s

Well I'm officially in the last year of my 20s. I got to thinking about how I've changed since my early 20s and there has been some pretty big changes.

My dating life: In my early 20s (and heck even my mid 20s)! I dated jerks. If a guy showed me attention and was in a band (insert eye roll). I was all over that. The problem is a lot of these guys were not looking for anything serious and if I thought about it were not right for me. Now this isn't to say that there aren't nice musicians out there. I just was not going after them because why would I like to make things easy and date a nice guy who had his life together?

Honestly if I met some of those guys I dated now I would not be attracted to them.

Style: Sometimes I wore clothing that was a little too tight and a little too short. No need for that. Next up is actually purchasing belts. I'm pretty anti belt but it needs to happen. I'm also much more into wearing dresses now.

Confidence: Still working on this but it's getting better. I'm more likely to stick up for myself now and not be a doormat.

Religion: I was raised Catholic but as of right now I don't consider myself to be part of any religion. I won't go into this too much as it can be a touchy subject but I now consider myself an atheist.

I feel like I've grown a lot since my early 20s so I have to assume that I'll only get better with age. For my 30s I hope to improve my eating and exercise habits, travel more, buy my own home perhaps start a family (hey I've got 11 years here.....) but let's not talk about that yet. I still have one more year of my 20s left.

Happy early birthday to me

Tomorrow is my 29th birthday . I'm turning decrepit right before your very eyes.

I went out to celebrate last night with friends since Monday is not a good day for party times.

I forgot my camera at home so I give you crappy iphone photos instead.

I'm sure Derek will love that I posted this last picture.

I've discovered that I'm very good at squinting my eyes in photos.

When we got back to my apartment I was ready for bed but then I noticed it was a bit cold. Guess what guys? My heat isn't working again. I started crying because I cry when I get frustrated and also I was a bit intoxicated. Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow. Us old ladies need our heat.

I shall leave you with a cat poem from my new cat poem book.

Nudge

Nudge
Nudge nudge nudge
Nudge nudge nudge nudge nudge nudge
Nudge
Your glass just shattered on the floor