weekend review: 'cause i'm the birthday girl, that's why...

I love the places that wish you happy birthday... Friday morning I found emails from Borders Rewards, MyCoke Rewards, and my Allstate Agent in my inbox. Awwww. So nice to feel loved, even by Coca-Cola.

I'll be honest, I didn't get much of anything done all day at work on Friday. With my phone set to vibrate, it was bouncing all around the desk all day as friends called, sent e-mails, e-cards, and posted comments on MySpace and Facebook. I was planning to offset this with working through lunch, but when Rio heard I was lunch plan-less on my birthday, we made impromptu plans to head to my favorite, Cafe Soleil - which we capped off with their fantastic chocolate mousse. I came back to the office to 15 minutes later be whisked into a surprise birthday celebration, complete with homemade German chocolate cake. Yes, more chocolate. I don't know that I can be legally held responsible for not being productive post-lunch with all that sugar.

For dinner, I'd made a reservation for me and the ladies to check out a spot I'd never been to before, Sesto Senso. The DG and I arrived before the rest of the crew. She offered to buy me a glass of wine and we were planning on drying off and catching up before the others arrived. We ran into two gentleman at the bar, one whose cousin owned the place, who insisted on getting us a couple of glasses of wine. Fine. So we were chatting a bit with them before they learned it was my birthday. Well, oh my then, they were insistent on ordering a bottle of Dom Perignon. The DG and I soon found ourselves with two glasses -- one wine and one champagne. Classy... the ladies soon showed up and we bid them adieu and made our way to our table.

What a nice restaurant... our new "friends" sent over some appetizers to begin, which were definitely appreciated by the table. The conversation was quite amusing, centering on one particular friend's recent encounters with um let's just say an especially challenged male on Match.com. He felt the need to explain that he was a habitual liar, even going on to state he wanted to be able to date but yet still keep his wife. Tip for the day... while females do tend to want closure and explanations in situations, sometimes silence is the best option!

Saturday was the Virginia Wine Festival. What could be more appropriate for my birthday weekend? We crawled out of bed bright and early to hike all the way to the end of the orange line to meet up with our bus at the Vienna metro with plenty of time to spare for our 10AM departure. The five of us made our way straight to the back, so we'd span window to window. We were just about to seek out someone to take a picture of us, when one gentleman, laughing, said we had to have a photo. Well, since you asked... instantly, there were 3-4 cameras out, on, and all five of us were smiling in his direction. =) MsH and JS had plans for the evening... the rest of us thought they were nuts, saying our plans for the evening consisted of nada, nada, nada. I said I'm going out... like a light on my futon. I am clearly a psychic (just ask my futon).

The festival was at the Morven Park Equestrian Center. The weather was beautiful, but a tad bit colder than anticipated and wind definitely amplifying the drop in temps. I soon found myself an owner of a threads of peace (?) sweatshirt. How do I always seem to find myself purchasing emergency sweatshirts? Oh well. Virginia vineyards might not be quite on par with California, but not all half-bad. I found myself coming home with five bottles -- three from Lake Anna Winery (Spotsylvania Claret, Lakeside Sunset, and Totally White), Rebec Vineyards (Autumn Glow - a fascinating blend of a Riesling and Cabernet Franc, love it!), and Kluge Estate (Cru - a Chardonnay made from grapes "fortified" with brandy and then aged in Jack Daniel's barrels - truly unique).

We met fantastic and friendly people everywhere we went, from the tasting tables to the line at the port-o-potty, where one time we encountered a couple of nice people, one who shared their recent purchase at the tasting table, a blush called "Fiesta". We later met a gentleman who said his daughter would have fit in perfectly with our crew. She had passed away from meningitis some years ago. It was a sweet moment.

It was close to 5:30 by the time we boarded the bus, where we were greeted by a small package of Hershey's Cacao Reserve. Mmmmm. We had basically devoured them when one of the group noted "um, the expiration date is July 2007?". Pish posh. We didn't let that keep us from our chocolate.

At 7pm as I arrived home, I was definitely happy with the birthday weekend. It was a weekend surrounded by friends and fun. I couldn't ask for more.

And now, I'm just refusing to acknowledge Monday's arrival, because I'm just going to keep living in weekend birthday mode...