I Laughed, I Cried, I Gave a Speech...

Had a great birthday weekend. My party on Saturday night was a blast. I'm lucky to have SOOO many cool friends. My ex made me a scrumptious carrot cake (it's the best carrot cake ever) and GirlyNYC brought the most delicious low-carb red velevet cupcakes with chocolate icing and little red lips candies sprinkled on top! Apparently, the cupcakes will be in Girly's Gothamist food column on Friday. Stay tuned.

A list of cool stuff I got:

- money tree
- pashmina scarf
- a collection of tiny notebooks
- plastic lizards on suction cups
- stickers
- candles
- 2 books - Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude and a collection of short stories by Michelle Cliff
- homemade eye gel
- a gorgeous red satin purse filled with goodies (from GirlyNYC)
- Clinique makeup set (from my mom)

Various birthday cards, some sweet, some obsecene, all lovely. Party went until 2 a.m. I hadn't been up that late in a while - it felt good and was a better way to spend a Saturday night than watching ER re-runs back to back...

On Sunday, I travelled to Staten Island for my aunt's surprise 90th bithday party. She sure was surprised! As she walked into the catering hall (which was frighteningly located in the seminary of some Catholic Church) the look on her face was of such sheer joy, it brought tears to my eyes. This may have also been due in part to my allergies and PMS, but my cheeks got a little wet.

I saw some relatives I hadn't seen in a while and was introduced to a cousin I'd never met who lives a few blocks away from me in Brooklyn, small world. The biggest surprise was when my mother announced I would be making the toast - unbeknownst to me - since I'm the one who "galavants around the world, talking in front of people." I stood up, glass of pink champagne in my right hand and said somethng about my aunt that I can no longer recall, but it seemed to go over well. Afterwards, I got a huge sinus headache, but was better by the time dinner (most of which I couldn't eat because it contained meat) was served.

So, I had a pretty eventful weekend!!! Just finished booking the Novemeber Atomic reading, will have info. up soon.