You say it's your birthday...well it's my birthday too

Turning 23 has never been so newsy.

No sooner had I returned from covering the ad:tech conference for 10 grueling hours did all the news start pouring in.

A text from Jason: "[H]ow exciting to share this day with the coronation of Kevin Fed-ex!"

I knew it was coming, but not this soon!!! Halle-lu-jah!

And then, via phone from Pritha (my Internet was down in the dorms): "Strickland and Brown won! Democrats took the house!"

I, like many of my journalist friends, should and would have loved to be parked in front of a TV watching poll results all evening if it weren't for 1.) my lack of TV and 2.) the need to see Borat on Student Tuesday at the Village East for my birthday.

And boy am I happy I made that decision. There is nothing like watching a totally non-PC comedy that a Tiffin crowd wouldn't even know what to do approach with a packed amphitheater full of New York hipsters. They even cheered at the opening credits. The movie was, of course, dead-on in its satire and screamingly funny, if not squirmingly gross at times (seriously...that naked fight scene did NOT need to go on for half as long as it did.) And Pamela Anderson is officially 1,000 times cooler by her mere participation in her big scene.

So then there was today's announcement that Rumsfeld was stepping down. Could my birthday be too good to be true? So much justice prevailed in a 24-hour period I began to feel rather powerful. I need to turn 23 more often!

But the amazing part of my birthday week is that the awesomeness has only just begun. Tomorrow night, for example, I will be attending a Billboard awards ceremony where they will be honoring none other than ELTON JOHN. To even be in the same room as him is a huge deal, regardless of any interview possibilties (which I doubt will even happen.) However, he is being awarded the Live Legend Award for his accomplishments in concert tours, so they jump at any and all opportunities to enhance media coverage. So we shall see...

Most amazing of all, on Friday, I am MOVING!!! It's happening a month early (much to the detriment of my current funds, but the Bank of Mom & Dad have handily stepped in for a short-term loan), but I needed to get out. And once I saw this apartment, I knew I would be dumber than Reese Witherspoon to give up something so beautiful.

Let's start with the bedroom, which in and of itself is bigger than my dorm alone. It comes equipped with queen-size bed (I wanted to jump on it right away), an entertainment center with TV AND a two-seater leather couch that folds out into a bed. Too good to be true? Keep reading...

The rent is $200 LESS than what I'm paying to live in a hole-in-the-wall dorm (which, admittedly, is a heavily inflated price to begin with), the space is smack dab in the middle of Washington Heights (by Columbia Med School) and my four roommates all seem very agreeable. There's even a cat named Grey Charles (it's a she, and she was born without eyeballs...poor sweetie!)

So after spending all of Friday basking in the glow of being a real New Yorker with a real apartment, I will toil at the store for 10 hours before heading over to Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center.

That's right, I am going to a dress rehearsal of Saturday Night Live.

I won the tickets months ago now and never fully realized that the date was the weekend after my birthday, which is why I'm all the more excited about this week. I wanted to keep the host and musical guest a surprise, but after Joey told me the musical guest was a former Mickey Mouse Clubber I had to know. And even better than Justin Timberlake: it's X-Tina!!!

Let it be known to any and all people sitting within a five-foot radius of me on Saturday: you are subject to bruised eyes, noses or other body parts as a result of my excessive finger-waving.