That was the subject line of an email I sent to some friends last week. It’s not quite my birthday yet (it’s coming this week), but it had been way too long since I’d seen some good friends. So I figured my birthday was as good as an excuse as any to arrange a mini get-together.

We started our evening at Ceviche, a tapas bar on Church Street in downtown Orlando. DadJovi and I had gone there this summer and enjoyed it, so I thought it’d be a good, fun place. Plus, the cocktails are pretty slamming, too! We started with a pitcher of sparkling sangria. Delicioso!

Our dinner group included Paula, Katy (both above), Michelle, Victoria and Andrea. Victoria’s birthday was just a couple weeks ago, so we were calling it a joint celebration!

Somehow, though, I have no other pictures from dinner! Guess that’s why I’m not a food blogger. I can’t even remember everything we ordered. We each got two or so plates and passed them around. The best thing was a rich and creamy scallops dish Michelle ordered and the baked goat cheese Paula ordered. I wanted to spend some quality time with those dishes. I should know much more about the food — our server spent a good 8 minutes giving us a thorough run-down of the meeting. He was very thorough.

Toward the end of dinner, J. and Colleen joined us after attending a Yelp Orlando event. I love birthdays! It’s the perfect excuse to bully your friends into coming out for drinks!

Since I’m old and never go out, I deferred to our nightlife expert Colleen as to where we should go after dinner. Since it was such a gorgeous night (I heart you Florida winters), our high heels braved the cobblestone streets for the walk over to Ember.

Thanks to Paula’s awesomely long arms, we were able to all squeeze in for one fierce group shot at the bar.

Then it was obviously time for shots. I’m in awe of Paula’s very specific shot order — chilled Patron, with a lemon. I wish I had a standby shots preference. Since I still can’t do tequila, a mere 17 years after it was ruined for me in Cancun, I was out on the Patron. We told the bartender to pick something for us, preferably with vodka. He delivered.

Apparently Michelle and I thought it was a shot racing contest because she and I both downed those suckers before Victoria even had a chance to tilt her glass. That’s how I birthday roll, yo.

But whatever our shot was, it was awesome. It tasted like pureed strawberries. Much like the tapas, some of us wanted to spend some QT with the shots, too.

It was most certainly glass-licking worthy. Meanwhile, Michelle did her best Don Corleone impersonation and spent some QT with her citrus chaser.

I don’t know about the rest of the girls, but it’s a rare night when I’m rocking the high heels. And since I was enjoying the views of all the girls’ shoes, I figured it was photo worthy. See if you can guess the shoes with their owner!

As cute as the shoes were, they had me in search of a bar stool. So we gathered some stools along the bar and settled in for some nice long chats! Ahh, girl time is good for the soul.

Eventually, we were down to four.

That’s where my photos end, but I have some fuzzy memories of doing a lot of duck face posing for Michelle. Plus, there was a couple across the bar posing for some ridiculous self-photos, so Victoria and I felt the need to recreate each one of their poses. They had it coming.

After awhile, we decided to go find Paula’s hubby, who was also out downtown. Along the way, I may or may not have picked up a slice of pizza. Hey, pizza calories don’t count when you’re celebrating your birthday, right? Besides, I figured it was a good preemptive strike against my inevitable hangover.

We ended up at The Abbey, and I should probably send a virtual apology to the door guy and girl for bitching about their $8 cover. But really? There are cover charges in Orlando? Who knew?

When we got there, all of the drinks plus the walk caught up with me and I started to crash! Poor Fabian. He was so sweet and trying to talk to me, but I think I had that glazed over look by that point. Next time, I hope to see him without all the gin surging through my veins and preferably without the house music (it’s just not my bag, baby).

Around 12:45, Victoria and I decided we were ready to head home. Since we live in the same neighborhood, we could even share a cab. Score! To be honest, I remember very little of the cab right. I got dropped off first. I’m pretty sure I gave her money, but I can’t guarantee that. I’ll have to check with her!

I came home, checked on E., tried to wake DadJovi up from his spot on the couch, then collapsed into bed.

And I learned a hard life lesson — there’s a reason parents shouldn’t drink. Trying to make it through the spins phase is very hard with a toddler laying across your chest, which is exactly what my 3 to 4 a.m. was like. It was brutal. I finally peeled her off me but not out of bed, so it was not a great night of sleep.

But then DadJovi gave me the best gift ever today. He and E. left by 8:30 for Disney and I got to go back to sleep. I was out hard-core and woke up at 11:30 a.m. That’s honestly the greatest gift I could ever receive. I haven’t slept that late in at least five years. And it was heavenly.

They stayed all day and I continued the QT trend by enjoying some alone time with my couch and the DVR. Perfection.

Want to know the coolest/strangest part about last night? Other than Katy, I barely knew the rest of these crazy awesome ladies a year ago. But now, they are so much more than just other bloggers in town. They’re true friends, and that’s also an amazing gift. Thanks for making birthday such a blast!

What’s your hangover remedy? I think I may still need one by Monday morning. And help me come up with a standby shot (not that I have much use for them, but a girl’s got to be prepared, right?).