Adrienne's Birthday!!!

Adrienne shares her birthday with MLK so she had the whole day to play. I was really excited that she was feeling more celebratory and ready to play when the day arrived. I had gone to NIA class, this time with a new teacher. It was hilarious. There were more pelvic thrusts than any Elvis concert one could imagine. Seriously. And it's me and a bunch of 60 year-old women. I almost wondered if the guy was drunk...it seemed so odd. But it was a cardio intensive workout so I was happy! One of the old ladies told me what a good-little-dancer I was. Those confidence shots are helpful after my dismal performance at Steps!
I came home and Jon and Adrienne invited me out on their shopping spree. We hit Lane Bryant first where I ran into (again, I tell you!) Abby Powell, a singer I knew from Aspen and also one of my friends from CCM's best friend. From there we went to Macy's. My gift to Adrienne was a Prescriptives lipstick of her choice. She loves MAC but has had trouble finding the perfect color....I was excited for her to get color-printed and find out if she was a blue-red, red-orange, etc. Well, Prescriptives is sure glad I brought her in for that lipstick because she ended up buying the whole makeover (minus the lipstick that I bought her!) It was fun to see her so excited about this new world of makeup and even more fun, for the woman who rang her up!!!
I parted ways to meet up with Liz Russ, highschool friend and NY singer. We met up at Columbus Circle, which has this amazing Time Warner center where the whole bottom floor is a Whole Foods. I peeked down there...such a zoo! Maybe even worse than Trader Joes. Karim frequents the Equinox there so I gave him a call on the off chance that he might be around...and as he listened to my message, I was waiting outside for Liz, and ran into him (AGAIN!) So fun! The great thing is that everyone knows Karim, including Liz, from days together at Brevard. I had to say bye to him for now because he is going to spend the next few weeks in Canada with "Carlton."
Liz and I went to two Starbucks looking for seats and caught up on life. She gave me a few good tips for my teacher and coach search.
I made an extremely efficient run at the Container Store and as Jon says had great subway karma...as soon as I walked down the stairs my train was there. It was a moment of bliss, where I thought how happy I was to live here!
At home, we were getting ready for our exciting bday dinner at Union Square Cafe, one of NY's best restaurants. It was such a delightful meal...Adrienne's mom's best friend's son is a student at the Culinary Institute of America and is currently interning there. We had hoped he might be able to hook us up with a little something special...and he did! We had ordered 2 orders of fried calamari (perfect!!!) for an appetizer...he also hand-delivered a tuna tartare and then a second course of pasta was brought out with his complements. The mushroom gnocchi might have even made Lis a believer! I ordered a filet mignon of ahi tuna...it was amazing and the thickest cut of tuna I've ever seen. YUM! Everyone's favorite was the side of mashed turnips we ordered for the table. We were so stuffed but decided to split one banana tart....but instead 4 desserts were brought out, one with "Happy Birthday Adrienne" written in chocolate. It was such a delicious evening and full of joy and laughter. We tried to coax Sara and Eric to come back to our apartment for Jon's cake but everyone was so full and it had been a 3 hour meal....11 pm on a school night....so everyone bailed. Adrienne and I indulged in our last non-Dr. Oz approved dessert treat at home before heading off to bed. It was a really happy day, and a turn-around I think for A and me!