Out On The Town

Last Friday night was my first Friday night in New York City, and it was quite a memorable one.

On Thursday I discovered that it was Jessica's 21st birthday, so that evening I ambushed her on the way to her room and sang her the Happy Birthday song. I asked her how her special day had been and she didn't have a very favorable response. I was distressed.

Birthdays for me are a very big deal. A VERY big deal. I can't stand it when someone doesn't have a good birthday, and I go out of my way to try and make their day as wonderful as possible. Because how many days out of the year do you get to be treated like the star of the show? One. How many days out of the year do all your friends, new and old, send you happy messages full of love? One. And how many days out of the year do people do things to celebrate the fact that you are alive? One. So that one day should be a special day (no matter how old you are).

Anyway, birthdays are big.

So when Jessica told me that her day hadn't been that amazing, I just couldn't let that happen. And on her 21st birthday especially, which (whether right or wrong) is one of the most long-awaited of all birthdays for most people.

To solve this problem, I told her that we were going out on Friday night to celebrate her life and that she could invite as many people as she wanted.

On Friday, a group of us girls from Centro Maria met in my room to plan our evening out. As I curled Jessica's hair, we searched online and in our Guide To New York books for good spots, which was proving rather difficult because at least half of us were underage. We were looking for a place that we could all go, when Jessica made it really easy by requesting that we all go out for desert at a really nice restaurant.

I personally liked that idea the best. Who doesn't love fancy deserts at nice places?

So after getting all dolled up, we walked a few blocks to a fancy italian restaurant. We all ordered different things, and then whenever we wanted a taste of someone else's desert, we would pass them our spoon so they could scoop us a bit. The girls were a bunch of fun and I laughed almost the entire time.

After dinner, we walked down Broadway for a bit and then headed back to Centro Maria because our feet were killing us. On our way back, we decided to rent a movie.

When we were about a block and a half away from Blockbuster, I started noticing that we were pretty much the only group of dressed up girls on the block. All the guys had definitely noticed. We were getting the looks and a couple cat calls, and as we walked in the video store I started laughing because we made such a funny picture. A bunch of pretty girls in stilettos are walking down the street, and just as the guys are thinking, "I want to go to that party," the girls take a sharp right. Into a video store. Perfect.

After renting a chic flick, we headed back to Centro Maria. As we neared home, Jessica dropped off from the group ahead to walk with me (my blistered feet were lagging behind), and at a moment when the group ahead was particularly loud, she whispered, "Thanks."