thanks to everyone that made my day special!

So, all in all, I'd say my 27th birthday was a success. I slept in, much to my mother's disapproval. Life is tough when you're the owner of a Blackberry. I set my phone to vibrate, but it vibrates rather vehemently. So all the texts and phone calls that were meant to extend birthday wishes actually kept repeatedly waking me up all morning. (Not that I'm complaining. Actually I am.) In addition to that, I also receive all email alerts on my phone, including any activity on facebook or myspace. So the damn thing was going off every 15 minutes. At one point I threw it on the floor. What can I say, I'm loved.

In the afternoon I made my way to Ala Moana.



I hoped to find a deal on a cute little something to wear to dinner, but after a few hours of meandering I settled on a new pair of shoes to go with a dress I already owned. Good enough for me. Shoes are one of my vices. I also stopped by the MAC counter in Nordstrom to get my makeup done. I would not normally come up with this idea on my own, but several friends suggested it. They insisted I treat myself. And I decided, why not? So I did.

Dinner was scheduled at Gyu-kaku in the evening.





There were four of us attending for sure (Ash, Quita, Phil, and moi). An intimate little group, I suppose. I haven't eaten there in months. It can be rather pricey if you get carried away. Two others also showed up (Michael and Nick), which was an awesome surprise. Pitchers of Kirin Ichiban were consumed. We started off with poke, assorted kim chee, and tofu salad (the dressing is delicious). My only requirement was harami miso (beef with miso sauce), but we also ordered garlic shrimp, garlic scallops, miso butterfish, sweet onion, mushroom medley, bacon wrapped asparagus, and premium kalbi (which was the happy hour half off special). I got a lychee martini rather than a birthday cake, which was fine by me. And then the staff came around and sang. And their way of celebrating was bringing me a birthday shot which tasted like apple, but apparently had 151 in it.

Instead of having dessert there, we spontaneously decided to head over to Coldstone. But alas, they had just closed. Since we were already in the area, we crashed Buca, even though they too had just closed. This worked out well. Alex bought our dessert. And then apologized for harassing me so much, which was appropriate. Tiara met us there. And then we moved on.

The night continued on to Charthouse for a lychee martini or two. Mmm, my favorite. And then we ended up at Red Lion's in Waikiki. It was much busier than on previous Mondays, which was disappointing. But in the end it was a fun night. Lots of socializing and laughs. The only negative aspect of the evening was my camera getting broken. It's not in the best condition anyways, but the person put in charge of documenting the evening with photos dropped the darn thing. He's looking into getting it fixed for me.

All in all, a much better birthday than 26. The lack of a blizzard guaranteed that one though.