Tyler's Birthday

You know what I love?

Birthdays.

Not just my birthday. And not even for the gifts. I prefer two things: 1) a ton of friends to accompany me to a restaurant (Dave & Buster's is a recent fave.) and 2) some sort of lunch/dinner meal with family and pie.

Angel food cake is also perfectly acceptable.

I have the added benefit of my birthday being on or almost on Thanksgiving, and if you know me at all, you know this is pretty much my own personal heaven. Because FOOD.

Anyway, I love birthdays in general. They're like their own holiday. The sprinkles, the sparkles, the mood, CAKE. Can I get a woop woop for some neatly or not so neatly wrapped gifts? Y A Y !

Maybe you think birthdays are childish. To you, I say stop harshing my mellow. If your heart doesn't sing at a chance to celebrate life, maybe you should find your inner child and realize that birthdays are for everybody!

So, my good friend Tyler turned 21 on Monday. Woo! *fist pump* His ID was expired, so we spent most of the day trying to renew it. Such a long story. We ended up not getting it renewed, but AS IT TURNS OUT, only 1 of the 3 places we went even looked at the expiration date. (They wouldn't accept his birth certificate. I asked.)

The grainiest photo in all the land.

We went to Cheesecake Factory, his restaurant of choice. Others may hold different opinions, but I think this place is the bomb. (It should be noted that I exclusively order pasta here.) We get the oh-so-delicious guacamole and some surprisingly stellar mojitos for which they didn't even ID us. I'll forgive them for it, though, because first of all, I don't want to look like a minor. Second, our server was the best server probably ever.

My blueberry mojito. *swoon*

He also had an Asian pear martini which he says is awesome but I'm just going to take his word for it. And OF COURSE we got cheesecake, which is arguably the best part of the whole thing.

We met one of his sisters at Edna's, which we learned is totally in a weird and awkward place. The walls and ceiling and basically the whole inside is covered in dollar bills. Some new, many very old and gross, but apparently the fun is to find your last dollar each time you go. Tyler and I decided we prefer to spend our dollars instead of staple them to the walls, but in honor of his birthday and experiencing something new, he put a dollar on the wall.

We didn't stay here long. We followed up with a visit to Henry Hudson's for the free t-shirt, but this dude was definitely doing his job and saw that Tyler's ID was expired, so that was a short-lived experience. The guy was "killing our vibes" anyway, as Tyler put it, and we only went there for the free t-shirt, so we couldn't be mad, really.

Watch out, World, this crazy is totally legal and now has access to all your favorite hang-outs. Unless your favorite hang-outs are places like Dave & Buster's, in which case, all of us have always been allowed in there and we've probably had a blast together already.