A Birthday For The Books

If I can count on anything in my life, it's that I will always arrive at some sort of existential crisis sometime around my birthday. It's inevitable. There is something about a day of the year devoted to my birth that tends to really wig me out.

Knowing this about me, my husband usually goes to great lengths to make me feel special, and this year was no exception. My birthday was this last Saturday, and it was truly one of the best ones yet. I was so distracted with the incredible time I was having that, believe it or not, I pretty much forgot to ponder my existence. Here are some of the wonderful things that surrounded that day:

1. I got a haircut, which I've been needing for about seven months, and then I took this pretty ballin' selfie while waiting for the Q train.

#likeyourself

2. I went ice skating in Prospect Park and only fell ONCE! 

Natch

3. When my feet started hurting, Daniel and I used our time on the ice as a photoshoot opportunity (duh)...

and then a glorious gust of wind made this magic happen...

4. We drank our fair share of sangria at my favorite boozy brunch spot on the UWS, Calle Ocho.

5. From there, we got our bearings in Central Park. We sat on a bench and gave voices to all of the dogs who passed us, and I taught Daniel how to harmonize to Silent Night for some reason. Oh, sangria.

6. After the music lesson, we ventured to the Museum of Natural History -- the place where Daniel's dreams are born. Despite my fairly lacking science background, I just absolutely love this place.

I may or may not have also given voices to all of the taxidermied animals. This one is saying "Hmmm?" like Yoda:

7. We then capped off our date with a trip to Magnolia Bakery because it's New York City, baby, and cupcakes are essential to any jaunt on the Upper West Side (or Sex & The City walking tour).

My birthday ended with an intensely amazing gift from Daniel. Knowing my love for theatrics and ridiculous Youtube clips, Daniel made video reenactments of a couple of my all-time favorites (along with the help of our dear friends, Clint & Jess). He did an incredible rendition of Crying Sorority Girl that you can view right here. It's pretty spot on, if you ask me.

It should also be noted that there was a celebration with friends on the eve of my birthday, at which I forgot to take pictures (and as we all know, if you are a blogger and you didn't take a picture, then it didn't actually happen).

No, but it did happen though, and it was a wonderful night of cheap beer, belly laughs, handmade cards, and scrumptious pasta. Thanks to everyone who came out and made me feel like a million bucks.

And, of course, a big thanks to THIS GUY:

The only photographic evidence from Friday's hoorah

Daniel's unfailing desire to see me smile makes every single day of my life such a joy, but it makes birthdays an absolute all-out blast. Thanks, boo. I still managed to fit in my annual existential crisis in the midst of all of this, but it was much more fun on ice skates.

Hope you all have a fabulous week, and if you're having a birthday, may the ratio of cupcakes to panic attacks be, like, 11: 0!