"I be drink'n, it's my berfday."

The best and worst part about the Real Change initiative in our neighborhood is that we haven't seen the I Be Drink'n, It's My Berfday lady in quite a while.

I had an absolutely wonderful birthday. Justin and I left Saint Louis at around 9:30am for Nashville, TN. We stopped in Metropolis, IL for lunch. Metropolis is the "Home of Superman." It's also... not quite the metropolis. The town's founding fathers had high hopes for the town.

We got into Nashville and it was so nice to see my family. My parents stocked up on my favorite snacks: shrimp cocktail, pickles and olives. I finally received my Botkier medium sized Bianca satchel in a delicious black cherry lambskin leather with gunmetal hardware. Fucking beautiful.

We went over to the Green Hills mall to pick up espresso and martini mix at Williams-Sonoma and some things at Origins. Then we had no wait over at the Cheesecake Factory (Yes, I wanted to go to a chain restaurant for my birthday...) and we had a nice enough dinner. Knowing I was going to order birthday cheesecake, I had a dinner salad.

We met up with Bobby for drinks at PM, because off the top of my head... I know PM serves drinks late on Sunday nights. I had a couple of blackberry mojitos and a birthday shot with our waiter.

Next day, we had kind of a late start. I wanted to do some shopping though... I was sad to see that Duets is no longer in SPACES, but I did discover a new boutique in there that carries great labels such as Chloe, Derek Lam, and Marc Jacobs. Their shoes were insanely marked down, practically at cost. I hope that doesn't mean that they may not be around much longer. There was no way in hell I would buy Chloe shoes with Ball And Chain hanging around. That's the kind of thing where I would have to just throw them in the closet and act like I got them a few months prior (*though this plan never works because I have no filter and just blab about my new shoes anyways).

My parents then trapped us in the Strip Mall of Death, across from SPACES. We got hung up in the framing shop while my parents inspected the grain on their museum frame and an European eyeglasses shop that specializes in handmade Italian frames. I don't wear glasses, so I was insanely bored while my dad picked up another pair.

After the Strip Mall of Death, we headed towards Cheeseburger Charlie's. If you are unfamiliar... it's the best burger place, ever. Hands down. It's the main reason Justin volunteers to tag along on visits to see my family in Nashville.

Then it was off to the Hill Center. My mom and I browsed at Anthropologie... I was definitely impressed by how sharp they keep the store. When I worked at the one in Chicago, our customers just trashed it. The one here in Saint Louis is in a mall, so it is a total mess and it's just too distracting to shop in. I saw a top I liked, but they didn't have my size. No big deal because I ended up finding a dress that I HAD to have while in Posh Boutique:



Came back home and went to work yesterday. My boss, Dan, was sweet enough to give me enough of my favorite candy (Jelly Belly beans, breakfast of champions) to potentially send me into diabetic shock. Because like Rufus Wainwright, if I buy jelly beans... have to eat them all in just one sitting...

Got a couple of pieces on gratis: a brown striped long grandpa styled cardigan that I actually took home a while ago, a couple of pima cotton/modal henley tees with mother of pearl buttons in a bright orange and black. I'll have enough on my gratis to get the AG-ed vintage skinny jeans to tuck into boots for the fall and winter.

Later last night, I went over to BARcelona in Clayton to have tapas with Maia and her yorkie, Diego. It was so nice seeing her... it's definitely been a while!

Then early this morning, I finally was able to pick up my birthday gift from Justin's family. A Tory Burch tote! A girl can never have too many bags!



What's sweet is that I told his mother how I went to a Tory Burch event at Neiman Marcus (was the only girl that wore TB, what the hell?) where if you purchased $500 worth of merchandise you got a TB tote for free. The nylon totes retail between $200-300, so it was a pretty good promotion. I drank two martinis, wandered around the store and NONE of the sales associates offered to help me. I had my Amex in my hand and they treated me like the It's My Berfday lady. So you can imagine my surprise when I picked up a huge Neiman Marcus box... that ended up having a nicer tote than the one I was wanting anyways!

I'm wondering if Maia wants to go to the block party in Clayton...