Well the birds have been freed from their cages.

The weekend ended too soon!

On Friday, my parents drove into town carrying a bevy of presents in the form of food and other household knick-knacks a girl like me doesn't realize I need until I receive it via my wonderful mother. The parental units settled into the couch and hung out with the blu-ray player and the cats to rest up, while Jesse, Erica, Sean, and I headed into Manhattan for Katie & Aileen's joint 25th Birthday Party at Hi-Fi.

Or so we thought. Upon descending into the L Train abyss, we were met with a challenge: the weekend train schedule due to L Train maintenance. How to overcome this challenge? PATIENCE. A LOT OF IT. I'M TALKING A GOOD HOUR OF IT. Which, I believe, we did with aplomb - by playing each other in backgammon on various iPhones.

Late into the evening, or really, morning, we finally arrived at Hi-Fi and entered to a bar full of friends. Aileen lives in San Diego and travels with the Plain White T's, so I hadn't seen her in forever! (Forever, in this instance, means last August at Warped Tour.) And Katie, though I hadn't seen her in maybe a day, well, she's still easy to miss in such a short while. It was a grand time, filled with catching up and birthday wishes. At one point, Keller, Erica, and I had a rousing discussion about books. NERDS. The lot of us.

The soiree also leads me to some advice for any single men out there. If you're at a bar or social event, DO NOT make a pass (see what I did there?) at a woman by telling her that she looks like she's not having any fun. Why would you do that? See, this hasn't happened just once. In my history of passes being made, this line has happened several times. First of all, looking like we're not having any fun is probably due to the fact that you just came up to us and said that. Second of all, if I'm not having any fun I would leave. Third of all, it's NOT a compliment in any way. If someone looks like they're not having fun, the first thing that comes to mind is a pout and an attitude (both somewhat unattractive qualities in a social setting). You're not making it any better. So please, anybody and everybody, if we weren't having fun, we'd have the power to leave if we so chose. Most of us - we're not stupid enough to hang out in a joint that's no fun, and we're also not stupid enough to fall for that line, which, I'm presuming, has never worked for the likes of you.

I digress.

On Saturday morning, bright and early, my mother made the household a wonderful breakfast. Then Erica, Kelly, my mother and I headed to New Jersey for a mission whose details I can't divulge in at this moment, suffice to say it went rather well. Jesse and my father hung out in Brooklyn while the women were away, and I don't really know what they were up to, but I'm assuming it was quite manly and involved burgers and/or various other meats like steak.

By the time we ladies returned from our journey, everybody had already had quite a full day. We decided to order pizza, nap, watch movies, and play games. That's what you call a relaxing and near-perfect Saturday night.

In the morning, we bid adieu to my parents, and went back to sleep for hours (the mark of a lovely Sunday). When we woke up, we decided to brave that damn L Train again to see The Wrestler. A compelling movie, for sure, and Rourke deserves all the hype about him. I'm slowly narrowing down the list of must-see films. I'm planning a movie-going extravaganza this coming weekend - if the L Train sees fit for such an excursion.

In other news, an old friend of Jesse's called in a favor last night and I tip-toed around the slew of musicians sleeping on our living room floor this morning.

And how was your weekend?