birthday week

Hello, hello! Welcome to my birthday week! Growing up sharing a birthday with my older (by 12 years!) sister has made me somewhat of a birthday diva. Ok, a HUGE birthday diva. I will never forget that when I was little, I once declared: "It's my birthday; I can do whatever I want!" My mom shot that down really quick.

This year is somewhat different. Several months ago, I gathered a few close friends and booked a flight to Washington, DC for the weekend of my birthday. I even got my mom's blessing to "do whatever I want, within reason," which I'm taking as anything not illegal. I flight out this evening, and 2 local friends will join me tomorrow morning. Additionally, my friend Lane is coming in from Philly, friends from Baltimore (where I will be staying tonight) will be down, and, of course, DC-area friends will be joining the festivities!

I have so many exciting things to look forward to, but for tonight, I can't wait to get off the plane and have a glass of Ms. Zabad-Ale, a beer my friend Zach named after me for my birthday! 6.0% Belgian Whit, yummy!

He's punny.

I'm also planning to eat my way across DC, with reservations at Founding Farmers, an all-American, enviro-friendly restaurant; Kinkead's, a seafood brasserie that is like eating art - it's my favorite restaurant ever!; and brunch at The Getaway, which Bitches Who Brunch sold me on by mentioning their $15 bottomless bloodies AND mimosas - you had me at hello.

As for non-alcohol-related activities, I honestly don't have much planned. We have a Capitol tour and possibly a White House Garden tour, but I've done pretty much everything else typically touristy in DC. I'd like to visit the Holocaust Museum, as I've always declined (I'm sensitive). However, this is Lane's first visit, so I'm sure we'll do plenty of sight-seeing! And of course, shopping (we're staying practically on top of the Pentagon City Mall), and a trip to Georgetown Cupcake for my birthday cupcake! I'm sure I'll have plenty to review when I get back, but suffice it to say, I'm so happy to be surrounded by people who love and want nothing less for me this weekend than for me to do WHATEVER I WANT! :)

Roadtrippin'

Tomorrow evening on embark on my first real roadtripping experience. Sure, I've been on countless family vacations, but at the time, the driving part of those seemed closer to torture than a fun, bonding time like no other. After having plans to go to Daytona Beach as part of a larger group, a friend and I decided to throw caution to the wind and make the drive to Miami ourselves. Actually, I'm still hedging my bets to see this pulls through as he is notorious for flaking last minute! However, the plan is to leave late tomorrow evening and drive through the night to Myrtle Beach. In an effort on my part to prevent us from killing each other due to 14 hours of silence (or rather kill him me for talking too much!), I spent several hours perfecting a playlist for our listening pleasure.

I believe the perfect playlist should listen like a conversation. It should start low, calm, and grow from there, swelling to a peak, and slowing dying out. By no means should it just be a random compilation of songs. For this reason I spend hours not only carefully selecting the music, but also organizing the order. A sampling is below, but unfortunately, some of the songs I'm most excited about could not be added there. Those can be found on Marc Johnce's website - he is an amazing mashup artist that I cannot get enough of! Seriously, check it out!

Other than that, I'm just trying to rest up and get ready for the long drive - and psych myself up for the fact that not only is this my first road trip, we've only reserved a hotel for one night out of the 8 we plan to be gone. We've packed a tent, sleeping bags, a cooler with plenty of alcohol, bathing suits, and not much else! Wish us luck!

**Edit: turns out my car doesn't play MP3 CDs, so I had to trim the list to fit it on 2. Sad.**