My 50th birthday celebrations

[bex77]

In March 2024 I got talking with Neil about my 50th birthday in 2009 and couldn't recall what I did. I dug up old emails to create a record of the amazing festivities! I had lots of birthday celebrating.
 

• My uber-generous little sister got us 4th row seats to see a Cirque du Soleil show in Boston Aug. 29 and took me out for a tasty Chinese dinner.
   
  
• Saturday Neil took me away overnight to our favorite hotel in Waterbury CT to soak in their whirlpool and eat a fabulous dinner.  We headed out Saturday morning and drove down to Bridgeport, CT to see where our pal Becky D  hangs her hat these days. She has a gorgeous, brandy-new apartment downtown in an area that is resurrecting itself. We worshiped her kitty, then she took us to lunch at El Idolo, an Ecuadoran place. We had plantains and cheese, then I tried their "shrimp casserole" which was not that at all, but lots of shrimp in a lovely orange sauce, sort of like butternut squash bisque, over rice. Yum.  We drove around Bridgeport, saw the lovely waterfront along the Sound and the University of Bridgeport and the new minor league baseball stadium

• We headed north to Waterbury, just 30 minutes up Rte 8, to the marvelous Courtyard by Marriott. They'd been sold out when I looked online and called Friday, so I'd made a reservation across the street, but when I walked in, they had a room!  We had a relaxing soak in their huge whirlpool then enjoyed some "Mythbusters" on the LG LED flat screen TV. Heh, Then came the higlight of the weekend - an elegant dinner at Diorio's Restaurant. http://www.diorios.com/. We made a reservation for the quiet dining room that is separate from the big bar area with booths. We started with the hot antipasto - samples of shrimp scampi, crab cakes, eggplant rollatini and fried mozzarella. The lobster bisque followed...a revelation. It was water-based instead of creamy, and had a ton of shredded lobster meat, so you got it in every bite. N. had the NY strip steak au poivre - a huge rectangle 2 inches high, with garlic mashed potatoes and sliced zucchini. This is the steak he dreams about - the marinade is incredible! I ordered the special twin lobster tails, taken from the shell then settled back on it for effect, stuffed with lump crab meat, pistachio and bread crumbs, accompanied by the same sides. Each bite was divine. We shared a slice of banofeee pie for dessert - a light, heavenly mixture of chocolate crust, toffee cream, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. Our waitress was fun - a nifty young woman who wants to be an actress, Jennifer. We took over two hours to eat, so I was pleasantly full rather than overstuffed.

• Sunday was another beautiful day! We had the hot breakfast buffet in the hotel lobby. They put out an amazing spread of fruit, scrambled eggs, hash, home fries, sausage, bacon, french toast, make-your-waffles, muffins, breads, coffee cake, cereals, yogurt...yum. We packed up and headed east.

• We stopped in Vernon, CT at the quintessential NY-style deli, Rein's. http://vernon.reinsdeli.com/ordereze/default.aspx We got a variety of goodies to bring home - Reuben sandwich, half sour pickles, sour cream coffee cake, spicy beef chili, herring in cream sauce, Dr. Brown's sodas, and pecan pie.

• Monday my parents took me out for a nice lunch at Jimmy's Steer House - I had baked stuffed schrod and rice pilaf with spinach.  I had a ghiradelli brownie sundae...yum.

• Tuesday the students at the Bok Center were wonderful to me!  James brought me cookies from Burdick's, another student gave me a tiara, and a third brought cupcakes from Sweet, a new bakery in Harvard Square

• I spent my actual birthday with Alice.  Alice sang to me and gave me a big hug. We shared a bologna sandwich and watched TV.  Her mom reported, "She made her first pun yesterday!  She asked her mom what was for dinner, and E said "Beef stew.  Do you like beef stew?"  And she replied, "I stew!  I stew!"  Bad pun, but great to know that she is good enough at language to play with it.  She knew exactly what she'd done, made an impy little face."

• Wednesday I took myself to the Barnes & Noble book store in Framingham for a book reading by my favorite blogger, Jon Katz.  He brought his dog, Izzy, and talked about his new book about whether dogs have souls.  
  

• Thursday we had dinner at Helmand with Judy Yen and Renee Johnson.  Their kaddo caused Renee to say it was the best thing she ever put in her mouth! 

• For a final flourish, we took two other theater folks out to Framingham to the Olive Garden I'd discovered on my trip out there earlier in the week.  I had a sausage festival of sausage soup, their pasta bowl with a sausage tomato sauce over oriechette with sausage on the side!  Heh

• I got lots of Facebook shout-outs.  Heh.  
  

I am a lucky woman.