Buddha, Barrage, and Billiards

As always, I had a WONDERFUL birthday. This was the first year in several that I didn't plan a formal get together. This was for a couple of reasons. One, my roommates and I are throwing a cocktail party in a few days and that has taken a lot of planning and organizing of it's own. Two, I wanted my day to be a little more spontaneous and a little more "random". So, with no real agenda set, I looked forward to what the day would bring. First off, I started my birthday at midnight with a piece of Chocolate Blackout cake that I purchased at a fairly new dessert place called Fluff between 50th and 51st on 9th Ave. Quite yummy and the perfect midnight snack before bed. When I awoke sometime in the afternoon, I went through all the well wishes sent via e-mail, text, and voicemail. Greatly appreciated. I leisurely got ready for the day and decided to try lunch at TAO, one of the hottest pan Asian restaurants in New York City. Not disappointed in the least! Started off with the duck spring rolls in a hoisen sauce. My second course was a generous portion of wok seared New York sirloin. This was all topped off with chocolate and raspberry wontons with vanilla ice cream. Not at a bad deal at $20.05, My company at lunch was Daniel, my roommate from Gateway's Saigon, who just happened to call before I left for the restaurant. We were in awe of the decor and ambiance created in this MASSIVE restaurant. Not to mention the towering Buddha that watched over us while we ate this luscious meal. Next up were happy hour drinks with some ex-coworkers from GSBO at Barrage. Thanks to Natalie, Brian, and Jill for the toasts, the free beverages, and the company. And last but not least, in a search to find something out of the ordinary to do and really random, Jill and I visited a palm reader who charged $10 to read my face. She told me a whole bunch of vague bull**** that she deducted from the little that I had actually told her. But that's not the random part. More spontaneous. What was really random and spontaneous was that we took the ferry over to New Jersey, Hoboken to be exact, in search of a bar to play some pool at. We found it, played some pool, and on the way back into the city, I ran into Josh, a friend of mine from college that I hadn't seen in ages. That was random. So in a nutshell, that was my random and spontaneous birthday. You should all try it sometime! You might be surprised to find out what happens!