U2 Concert

My birthday this year was amazing. It was so nice having all the people I love in one location dancing and celebrating. Jennifer and Mike (my cousin and her fiance) were able to come down from Fairfield, CT and my sister Samantha and her boyfriend Pat traveled from Philadelphia which was really nice. The night of my birthday, Mike took me out for dinner at Lotus Cafe which is one of our favorite restaurants in the area. Not only did I have this wonderful celebration and lovely dinner, but Mike was able to score tickets for us to go see U2! Now this was definitely the cherry on top! The concert was Thursday (9/24/09) evening, which meant we had to leave work as soon as we could since traffic this time of year is very unpredictable. We arrive in New Jersey and lo and behold...traffic galore! Even though there was car congestion, we were still doing great on time and it didn't bother us we might miss the opener. We finally arrive at Giants Stadium and find parking...the place is crammed! The fact that it's so crowded adds to the pumped up factor for me. Mike is a seasoned concert goer and assures me that this is one of the most crowded venues he has seen by far. While walking towards the stadium I felt like skipping I was so happy! The seats we had were at a perfect level and close to the stage where we could see U2 really clear without having to use the huge screens to watch the performance.

The performance was amazing...it was everything I expected! They put on such a wonderful show with so much energy coming from the audience as well. They performed a lot of their classics and oldies while throwing a bit of the new stuff in the mix which was nice since we are not too familiar with their new album. It was so nice experiencing my first U2 concert with Mike, we had such a great time!

Birthday Week

It's always great to start something on a happy note isn't it?

This past weekend was super busy, celebrating a friend leaving Cravath, and most importantly celebrating Katherine's birthday!

Friday night we went out for drinks with said friend and a couple ex-coworkers at a mid-town bar (Social). It was a laid back time, and Katherine and I skipped out to go to Nick's for some delicious Greek food. We ended up eating outside and befriending a couple sitting next to us, offering advice to the two gentlemen on what we had ordered and what they might like. We ended up doing tapas Greek style, and ordering a number of appetizers for our meals...among them a feta/olive/pita plate, grilled octopus, a greek meatball/sausage dish, and fried zucchini. After dinner we went back to Social to say some goodbyes. We had thought about going dancing, but after a long day of work we decided to call it a night and headed on home.

Saturday we woke up and realized we didn't have anything to wear for Katherine's birthday party that evening. After briefly considering going in my birthday suit, I thought better of it and we headed out to the malls to treat ourselves to some new clothes. Kat ended up getting a sleek black dress (center pic above) and some new heels from Jcrew, in addition to a pretty dope sweater at Banana. I also found some decent items at banana (center pic above), and went lumberjack at Jcrew picking up a new flannel jacket (right side pic above). We also went to Johnny Rockets and indulged in all things fatty and greasy. It was Kat's first time there, which was surprising but also nice that she could witness the deliciousness of onion rings and ranch dressing for the first time with me.

Saturday night we headed into the city after picking up her sister Sam and Pat (boyfriend) from Kat's parents' place. The drive was pretty outrageous, feeling more like a morning commute than anything resembling 10pm on Saturday night. Finally we got to the bar, and were greeted by numerous friends and family. It was great that we had a small but close knit group of people at the party, and we all had a great time talking and dancing until 3 in the morning.

Sunday was pretty laid back. Sam and Pat stopped by our place and we went to brunch at a local diner, and then we hung out over at Kat's parents' place with the dogs. For dinner, we went to a nice little Italian restaurant with the entire family. It was really nice having everyone together for a joint celebration and dinner for the first time since I've ...arrived. It's been such a welcoming feeling having her family really receive me in such a genuine and caring way. I really

appreciate it so much.

Monday, work was bleh and I was oh so very tired since we had stayed up very late Sunday night water coloring, writing, and listening to music. It's always so nice indulging in a more creative side, and I'm really glad that we take the time out of our day (or make time) to do these sorts of things. It fosters things that really make us who we are.

We ended up surviving the work day, and after going home to change. We went out to dinner at this delicious local Chinese restaurant for Katherine's actual birthday, and ordered lots of yummy food. At the end of the meal the waiter overheard that it was Katherine's birthday and he prepared a dessert complete with candle. Instead of singing at this restaurant, they turn down the music and play a Happy Birthday orchestral piece over the speaker system without singing. Feeling compelled to sing, the two of us broke into Happy Birthday while other restaurant patrons watched us.