Birthday flowers from my roommate Tiffany

This post is about a week overdue -- lately, I feel like I've been doing so much (fun stuff) that I haven't had any time for normal life things (cleaning, laundry, blogging!).

Anyway, I wanted to dedicate this post to the friends and family that made my 25th birthday the best birthday yet =) This is a long post about all the things I did that weekend, sprinkled with links to places, all of which you guys must go to / try sometime!

Festivities started last Thursday night with Cinco de Mayo. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that night! But I did have yummy frozen sangritas (sangria + margarita together) and delicious Mexican food to mark the occasion at Lime Jungle with Tao, Steph, Jing and Jadie.

On Friday, I had a birthday dinner at Alta where we had the most delicious tapas -- some favorites were the lamb meatballs and the fried goat cheese with lavender infused honey (well at least half the table loved it!). Ed also had the unfortunate task of telling the waiter about my food allergies after my birthday dessert came out filled with mangos (mango sorbet with mango crème mousse cake) and again after he brought out something with nuts. We ended up with three desserts =P I definitely recommend coming out here -- the food was delicious and the atmosphere was awesome. By the time we left around 945, it was like a huge party out in the front bar!

Amabelle and me at Alta - the sangrias were strong!

Fried goat cheese balls with lavender infused honey

After dinner, we spent the rest of the night at 675 Bar in the Meatpacking District until we were ready to get our singing on at Ding Dong Dang karaoke in K-town (our GO TO place!). The most amazing thing about this night was that my high school friend Amabelle came all the way out here from San Jose, my college friend Sam happened to be in New York for work, Jing just finished his last final of the year, some other friends were here from the Bay Area along with all my awesome NY friends were all there together! I love mixing friends =))

Singing at Ding Dong Dang Karaoke -- BSB has never sounded better =P

Having woken up at 3pm on Saturday, we didn't do much in terms of day time activities, but we started the night early at PS 450.

Although there were some hiccups at first (the girl I made my table reservation with got fired the night before so they didn't have my reservation!), thanks to Janice's fierce arguing / negotiation skills, the manager carved out the entire front of the bar for us, gave us 2 rounds of free shots and a free bottle of champagne =) And despite my fears, lots of people showed up -- even Christina from CA and Shelley who just moved to New York last Wednesday! What a fun night -- thanks guys!!

Also special thanks to Phyllis who helped me strategically place all the Hollywood Tape (oh so useful stocking stuffer from Janice) for my top. Janice also got me my new orange Henri Bendel bracelet, which I wore right away (and am wearing right now as I type this).

On Sunday (my real birthday), Jing took me out on an all day tour of the UES and UWS of Manhattan! We started out with brunch (my favorite meal of the day) at Alice's Tea Cup Chapter 3. This place is SUPER cute and I loved the Alice's Tea and Jing enjoyed the Detox Me Tea -- both helped with our hangovers. We also got the Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich and strawberry with earl grey honey crepe.

I also took this occasion to wear the new DvF scarf that Tiffany gifted me for my birthday! Now I will have something I can wear by an iconic New York designer to remind me of my time here. Thanks Tiff!!

Sipping on some tea at Alice's Tea Cup -- I alternated tea with some Gatorade =P

After brunch, we headed to the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I love the iconic circular design of the building and how the whole museum is just open to the atrium. We spent a few hours there learning about paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Picasso and many others! Great prep for my Europe trip since I am sorely lacking in my art history knowledge (and still am since I think I retained 5% of what I learned).

Jing and me in front of the Guggenheim Museum

Afterwards, was a walk through Central Park where we attempted to ride the row boats -- unfortunately the line was SUPER long b/c of Mother's Day, so we decided to keep that as something to do next time we're in New York together (need to keep some things to look forward to right?)

By this time we were hungry (again), so we headed to dinner at the UES location of Luke's Lobster. I have been DYING to have a lobster roll in one of the famous New York places and I couldn't believe we were finally going! We got the Taste of Maine which came with half of the three rolls they have (lobster, crab, shrimp) and then we got another whole lobster roll. Man this place is DELICIOUS. The lobster meat came in big CHUNKS, not all cut up like some places where it resembles a lobster salad or something. Thinking about it is making me extremely hungry and sad that I can only have salad right now…

The Taste of Maine at Luke's Lobster -- comes with 3 half rolls, 2 crab claws, Vickie's chips and a soda

After finishing that off, we were still hungry so we got a full sized lobster roll! SO DELICIOUS

Afterwards we rushed off to the UWS to Lincoln Center where we saw Fast Five in IMAX (my 2nd time watching it!). I gotta say, the acting is kind of bad and the lines are a little (okay SUPER) cheesy, but it's SUCH a fun movie! Fast cars, things blowing up, hot girls -- what else can you ask for?? Anyway, I enjoyed the movie a lot more this time since last time we saw it we were sitting in the 2nd row and I had to lean my head all the way back to see 2/3 of the screen haha.

We ended the night with our 2nd dinner at Caselulla Wine Bar. This little wine bar is SUPER cute, has delicious food and yummy wines. We originally came to get the bone marrow dish that Jing was craving, they it's not on the menu anymore =( We shared a Pig's Ass Sandwich, one of their signature dishes, instead.

Anyway, that was the ending to my WONDERFUL 25th birthday weekend! Thanks everyone for reading and for those that wished my happy birthday in person / over the phone / on fbook / through twitter.

This week has been just as wonderful in many ways too! So far, I have dined at Momofuku Ko (after 3 long years of trying to get a res there), learned how to play craps at a fun charity event at the Hudson Terrace, bought myself my 25th birthday gift (something shiny =P) and went to the Yankees / Red Sox game (my first ever Yankees game). I promise to find some time to blog about all that too =)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

See Jessica Turn 25