you’re anxiously awaiting an update on the birthday shenanigans, i’m sure. i was just waiting until i’d sorted through the hundreds of pictures we took over the course of the weekend (with bonus new years pictures), so you could also see the fun for yourself.

what can i even say? every year i get older it seems like our birthdays get more and more fun. it started off real good with the lovely gift of flight of the conchords on thursday, dinner with fellow birthday girl diane and friends, followed by a secret surprise trip to the airport (jessica: ‘um, we may have to leave dinner when i tell you, because you have another present we have to pick up at a certain time’). i was forced to stand facing away from the arrivals until i was suddenly surrounded by gabe and matt, who’d flown in all the way from new york just to hang out for the birthday fun. super fun birthday moment number one. we went home and had some drinks and played rock band until much later than we should have.

friday we were supposed to wake up early and go snowboarding, but since they got in late and we stayed up later, we ended up not making it until early afternoon — what with the hunting for required snow chains and eating of del taco and what have you. still, good to get some time on the slopes in and get out of town for a few hours before heading back for the big party that night. super fun birthday moment number two.

then we showered up, rocked out a bit more, and headed out. we knew it would be a good night as soon as we got into the cab, having all downed a can of sparks, and started singing along to the oldies station. you’d think it was karaoke the amount of heart we put into butchering ‘i will survive’ on the way to santa monica. super fun birthday moment number three.

we made it in, ordered up some cheese steaks that were totally decent, and began with the drinking and partying. now let me just set the scene: the bar is a few steps below ground (hence the name 14 below, i guess), set behind a divey sports bar and next to a swanky lounge bar. it’s one square room with a big bar, and a long rectangle room with a stage. by about and hour or so in, we had at least half-filled both rooms with very nearly all of our favorite people in LA, except of course for our tragically sick mising fifth birthday buddy gino. not to mention dom flew in from san fran, madilyne and her boyfriend kyle drove down from vegas, and we brought some east coast representation with us. gabe and matt even had to wear shirts with my picture on them for losing their bet that the illini would win the rose bowl versus USC. basically, the scene was spectacular. super fun birthday moment number four.

things got underway with a bevy of shots, beers, and mingling, until the bomb who is dj out of controller, our friend ted, stepped up to his electronic tables and proceeded to knock us on our asses with killer dance music. just the right mix of indie/hipster-compatible tunes (republica? blur? nice!), remixes (matt and kim v flosstradamus? chromeo v MSTRKRFT? fucking A!), and cool electronic pop (daft punk and lcd never disappoint). the music was loud, the floor was bumping, ted had a grin on his face a mile wide, and i think i have him to thank entirely for not drinking so much i’d puke — we were too busy dancing to get as drunk as we could have. super fun party moment number five.

then we got cupcakes! and my card was signed by lots of nice people. and it had a picture inside of my gift: a set of not one, but TWO official, portable, foldable beer pong tables to replace my crappy old home made one. as you can imagine, i was quite excited. super fun birthday moment number six.

we made it home with much gratitude to the ride from stacy, then stayed up later, drank more, and played more rock band. jessica even did shots, that girl can party. super fun birthday moment number seven.

the next day we grabbed in-n-out, went to amoeba (picked up some superbad, hot fuzz and patton oswalt), then went to see rambo with all the guys. that, i’ll save for its own post tomorrow, but it was fun as hell, i’ll say that much. but even better when followed up with a test drive of the new beer pong tables back at justin and josh’s place. super fun birthday moment number eight.

it had to be one of the best birthday weekends on record. i was exhausted and happy and already looking forward to next time. matt coined the perfect term for it saturday morning over burgers: post-party depression. where all you can think of is how much fun you had last night and how you wish it was still going on. but as you can tell by the length of this post, i had an amazing time and am super grateful to everyone that participated. there’s no possible way that year 27 won’t be the best one so far.