Twenty-Six.

You guys, today I turned 26. I distracted myself from wallowing in sadness from being too old by cooking and eating a lot of things. Alex helped distract me by helping me make this cake! It's a cookies & cream cake, which is chocolate with smashed up oreo buttercream. I got to smash the oreos. I like that part.

My friend's record company is called Topshelf Records, and for their 1st anniversary party I made them a cake many years ago, and I feel like my cake-making skills have gotten way better since then, so I made another cake in honor of all their recent success. And my birthday, of course.

At first I was all pissed off because my chocolate sauce was too thin to write with and my frosting wouldn't fit through my star tip because of the cookie crumbles, so I had to use my O tip, and freeze the chocolate sauce so it was thick enough to pipe. It was still runny, but it worked out okay, and the O tip isn't my fave for cake decorating, but it did the job, I guess. I stuck a bunch of oreos around the border for kicks. And more chocolate. It needed more chocolate. Then I ate some. I wasn't pissed anymore.

We went to the Met! I can't believe we hadn't been for years. We went a few years ago, and some guy used this funny pick-up line on me, which began with "Excuse me, are you German?" I quickly diffused the conversation and moved on to another area, then the museum closed, and I couldn't find my friend who I had come with. I eventually spotted her getting cornered by the same guy and so I sort of just pulled her away. She said, "It was the weirdest thing. He asked me if I was German."

We grabbed sushi for lunch at Beyond Sushi on E 14th street. It ruled, as it always does. My favorite one is the kiwi, but the Spicy Mang also kicked ass. I've tried all of them except the mushroom one, because I always go with mushroom-haters. What gives?

Just run to this restaurant. Right now. Sprint, if you must. Or jog. You'll understand once you get there.

This is me, looking one year older than last, terribly distracted from my mid twenties by a bounty of beautiful vegan sushi pieces. And lemonade. Minty, cucumbery lemonade. Spa-like and zen-inducing.

For dinner, we went home and made New England Glam Chowder from the PPK blog. You have GOT to try this recipe, y'all. It is the real deal. No joke. It smells nice and oceanic. Oceanic, like the sea, from the nori, not the airline that fatefully crashed onto the hidden island in LOST. If I did crash on Oceanic flight 815, though, I would def try to eat some of this chowder. It would kill all the bad vibes from the Others, the smoke monster, and all other sorts of enemies with guns or bombs. Tranquility in chowder.