Birthday Weekend--Briefly

It was a busy and very good birthday weekend!

It all started on Friday when three of my friends--Lindsay, Linnea, and Jaime--sent me a cherry pie at my office from Bubby's Bakery. It is SO tasty! I think I'm going to have the last piece for breakfast this morning. (Don't worry--I shared it with coworkers. I didn't actually eat the whole thing! Though I probably could have.)


I took myself to get my hair done on Saturday morning--highlights, and my hair dresser threw in a little red. "You need a change!" she told me. "New hair for the new you." I have been going to her for my hair for 2 years now down on E. 23rd and we only just found out that we literally live two blocks away from each other. She gave me a quick recipe for Mexican black beans and suggested I try a restaurant on Third Ave and 116 St. I plan on going this week.

As usual, the hair salon took longer than expected. I rushed home to grab some snacks for my birthday picnic and met Linnea at my apartment. We gathered everything, met Danielle at the 68th St. 6 and then went over to Central Park. The weather was absolutely perfect! We were in a sunny spot for a while and then were shaded, which was perfect since it was so hot. We drank four bottles of champagne, sparkling wine, and prosecco (there were about 10 of us), ate an amazing SpaHa fruit salad, yummy grapes, and tiny turkey sandwiches that I made. Though let us not forget the most important part of the day: The Cake!!!

It was, as expected, amazing!!

After the party I went out to Astoria with Danielle and she made maple mango salmon with rice and brocolli for dinner. Again. Amazing!

The next morning--my actual birthday--I ate cake for breakfast, and then met Danielle in SoHo/Chinatown for facials. After that we headed to the Verizon store and she made the giant leap from standard cell phone to Blackberry. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant after that, and I headed off to my UCB improv class.

I didn't think I was feeling very improv-y but I did alright. It was probably one of the first times I've gotten mildly positive feedback from my teacher. I think my favorite skit of mine that day was one in which I played one of two Israeli men (with another girl playing the other man) at a bar who wanted to be like American men. They drank beer and asked to see every woman's breasts. It was sort of in the vein of Hans and Franz from the old SNL skits. Highly amusing.

I am required to see at least two UCB improv shows for my class or I fail. This week is/was my last chance. I'd only seen one so far, and the one I'd seen before that was scripted so it didn't count. After class I took a shot in the dark and went to the theater, by myself, to wait in the standby line for the 7:30 show, which is only $10. The 9:30 show is free and usually it's pretty hard to get into. People can make reservations, but even those are hard to come by. Some people are really hard core and camp out all evening just to get a free ticket. The Sunday night shows at UCB are where you're most likely to see celebrity comics, which is why people want to go then. The UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade Theater) was started by a group of comics in Chicago and brought to NYC. (They also have a theater and school in LA now.) They have been doing the Sunday night show, Assscat 3000, here for 13 years now. I have been to Assscat 3000 once--for my class. The most well-known comic on that night was Rob Huebel (I recently saw him as AJ in two episodes of "The Office"). He was all about the ass-fucking jokes. He even did one skit where he fucked a dead whale, ok? Mmm, not really my style, but still amusing.

Last night, though, I saw Amy Poehler! (I couldn't stop singing the Sarah Palin rap in my head all night. I adore her! Talk about a great birthday present!!!) Poehler is one of the original UCB members, so it was really really special to see her. I hear she rarely does Assscat 3000 anymore. UCB doesn't make the Assscat cast public, so when you show up you don't know who's going to be performing. It was really amazing that she happened to be there. I almost didn't go. I was going to go home to do my laundry! But I felt good after class, didn't have any more plans for my bithday, and didn't really feel like sitting at home alone all night. I definitely made the right decision.

Rachel Dratch was also in the group. She and Poehler work really well together. I was very impressed. I saw her sneak in to the theater earlier while the audience was milling about finding their seats, but I thought maybe she was just going to watch. I have to say, Poehler is an improv GENIUS and Dratch was very good too. I enjoyed watching Dratch improvise way more than I did while she was on SNL. Truthfully, I never really liked her on SNL.

In the end, I have to say, I had an amazing birthday weekend. It was probably one of the best birthdays I've ever had. I feel so loved and I feel pretty happy and so good about many many things.

Too bad it's Monday now. I have so many things I needed to get done over the weekend! Well, I guess they'll just have to wait. It's off to work I go!