SPOTTED: chuck bass and vanessa at HMOH bday

Last night my amazing friends organized a bday dinner at West Village's Extra Virgin (yes, it's still my birthday until October in case you didn't know).  Clearly we were all fashionably late to the reservation and threatened our table would be given away.  We all arrived and after amazing food (mac and cheese truffles, french fries with fontina cheese, caramelized brussel sprouts, chilean sea bass and a molten chocolate birthday cake), we, like mature adults, played a game of "Never Have I Ever" at the dinner table.  A classy bunch of New York City girls - and that's why I love them.


Living in New York City, I find myself jaded by celebrity sightings (ok, that's a lie but I try). When you pass movie set after movie set, you sometimes just get pissed that you can't cross the street ...  it's the New Yorker in you. But then there are celebrities that however cool you want to be around them, you won't be.  


If you know me, you know that I sometimes forget I'm not a star in the show Gossip Girl (or that I'm ten years older than them, but whatevs).  The show films on my old block and so I've walked by to watch scenes, purposefully made reservations at Angelo's Pizzeria to watch the gang film at the local Pinkberry, or confused myself when the YMCA across the street from my apartment was turned into a police station for a day.  I also thought I babysat one of the characters until I realized Blair Waldorf babysat her in an episode and I actually had never met her before in my life.  


But remember when Happy Meals were all the rage (are they still??), and you'd beg to go back each week so you could complete the set of 6 miniature Barbie dolls otherwise you'd face social suicide on the playground?  Yep, the cast of Gossip Girl - unknowingly - is my happy meal.  Last night, I added another two to the set as Chuck and Vanessa clearly heard about my bday festivities and sat next door to overhear our game of NHIE.  


SPOTTED:

• Dan and Serena at Artichoke Pizza - check (NOTE: I bought them pizza because I'm cool like that and had just hung out with Penn Badgley's mom) 
• Penelope at an Alphabet City bar - check (just a friend of a friend's girlfriend at the time, so clearly I knew her before she was famous)
• Eric and Jenny filming at Pinkberry - check 
• Rufus and Lilly kissing on set on E. 54th st - check 
• Rufus again at Cafe Metro by my office - check (picking up a diet coke)
• Chuck Bass and Vanessa last night at Sant Ambroeus  - check (seated next to Ferris Bueller actually)

But as I was reminded this morning when I thought I completed the set ... I have yet to bump into Nate or my BFFAE Blair.  It's ok, because when it happens she'll likely ask me to be her Maid of Honor.


A disclaimer: I'm not just saying this to be cool - because quite frankly a ridiculous show based on a book series for tweens doesn't make a girl now in her late twenties that awesome.  And usually as a city gal you have to keep calm and not ask to take photos.  But sometimes you do ... and sometimes you just creepily do it from your cell phone when they turn around. 

SPOTTED: BFFAE

SPOTTED:  Rufus at Cafe Metro

xoxo - HMOH (yep, I went there)