Cinco de Mayo Especial

I love Enrique Iglesias, as all of my friends know, so when I saw this on People.com I knew that I had to share it with you.

"The ultimate Cinco de Mayo celebration requires two things: lots of beer and great music.

Enrique Iglesias's new single "I Like It" featuring Pitbull (and a cameo by Lionel Richie) is a perfect party-starter – it's even being included on the upcoming Jersey Shore soundtrack – so PEOPLE asked the singer, 34, to share the five songs he loves to listen to on the holiday.

"Ojala que llueva Café" by Juan Luis Guerra

"This is one of the most classic Latin songs of all time," says Iglesias, who recently had Guerra record on one of his tracks.

"Si No Te Hubieras Ido" by Marco Antonio Solis

"I think he is one of the best Mexican songwriters and this is one of my favorite songs of his," he says.

"Time to Pretend" by MGMT

Says Iglesias: "It's a unique way of saying let's all just have fun."

"Perdoname Mi Amor" by Rigo Tovar

Why did this track make the singer's list? "Because a good friend of mine from Mexico is always singing that song."

"Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon

"I just love this band," he says, "and think this is a very clever track."

Iglesias's new album will be released in July."

U St. Celebration

To get an early handle on my birthday, I invited a bunch of my friends to come out and celebrate in the U St. area. The first stop was Eatonville on 14th st followed by dancing at Local 16.

We really got an authentic southern experience eating at Eatonville -- Water served in mason jars, comfort food (like the catfish and cheese grits that I ordered) and a broken air conditioning unit causing all of us to stick to our seats. The art work in the restaurant was also impressive. I would definitely go back, but not with a big party - splitting the check was probably the worst part of the entire evening.

After that we walked on over to Local 16 where we met up with some of my wonderful friends from AU. It was just as hot there, so I floated around between the patio and the dance floor.

It was a VERY good night, my Badgely Mishka find from Loehman's was a big hit, and I had a wonderful time celebrating my birthday with my friends.

Threads

As a recent victim of a (very) bad eyebrow wax job, I was hesitant to do anything when I noticed recently that my brows were badly in need of shaping. One of my friends at AU suggested threading.

I did some homework on the subject and decided to give it a try. One Thursday afternoon, I walked into Threads (Bethesda location). In just moments Sonja started working on my eyebrows using the ancient threading method. I was shocked and amazed at how unbelievably painless the experience was.

Pros of Threading:

• It does not hurt
• It won't cause your eye-lids to sag
• It's safe to do if you're on certain medications
• It's less expensive than waxing
• No dangerous hot wax
• More hygienic

Pros of Waxing:

• ......

I highly recommend threading, specifically at any location of Threads in DC.

Shopping in Friendship Heights

Up until now I haven't heard the best reviews about the shopping in Friendship Heights.

"The parking sucks."

"The parking is expensive."

"The parking is expensive even if get you get validation. And it sucks."

"The stores close at six"

"The stores don't open until the afternoon"

"The department stores in Friendship Heights don't have the same selection as the same stores in other locations"

Keeping all of these things in mind, I met two of my friends in Friendship Heights to go birthday dress shopping. My first instinct was to hit Neimans or the Barneys Co-op but I went to Filene's Basement first. The dress selection lacked much to be desired so we crossed the street and went to Loehman's. I tried on three dresses and none of them did it for me. I was just about to leave when my friends found me leaving the dressing room. They presented me with a pink Badgely Mishka dress that they found on a clearance rack in some other section of the store.

I went back to the dressing room area to try it on and all of the rooms were full. The dressing room attendant pointed us to 'the big room' so we entered. Imagine -- an enormous communal dressing room with mirrors on every wall. AWKWARD. I almost threw in the towel but they convinced to try the dress on middle school style.

Finally, after the ordeal of changing in front of strangers was over I looked at the dress and we unanimously agreed that it was the winner.

For my birthday I have a perfect pink Badgely Mishka dress (originally priced at $695...bought it for $70) and a super awkward story to tell every time someone asks me where it came from.

Also -- I had to walk an extra couple of blocks, but there was ample street parking at the reasonable price of $0.

The Target Trials, or Reason #346 for why it's time to move out of the Spring

Some things are inevitable, right? For example - you can't escape the law of gravity. You also can't escape Murphy's law or paying taxes OR leaving Target without spending FAR more money than intended and forgetting to buy an item (usually THE item) that brought you there in the first place.

The Target law usually happens to people who visit 1) without making a list 2) who are hungry or 3) are going out of boredom. I've done all three of these things and take full responsibility for them. The Cherry Hill Target has further complicated measures by epically FAILING every time I visit.

Today I went to a foreign Target in another neighborhood and saw two must-buy items. Since I was in the middle of doing something else, I decided to wait until I got home before making my purchases. I went back to what I was doing, went off to school for a meeting, and made the trip up 29 to Cherry Hill.

Well. Of course they didn't have what I wanted. Did you know that Zac Posen is designing a line of dresses exclusively for Target? Or that Miss Trish has special Target sandals with crystals on them? No? Well you're probably shopping at the Cherry Hill Target like me, because they don't have either of those brands.

Not one to leave empty-handed, this is what I bought:

• The Giada At Home cookbook (It was on sale for a limited time)
• The May issue of Vogue (It had Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover AND May is my birth month. Obvious)
• A bottle of shaving gel
• Nail polish remover (Forgot to buy cotton balls. Naturally)

Total: $30 spent having left without the purple Zac Posen dress OR the Miss Trish sandals with the crystals.

Target - 1, Me - 0

The Back-Up Plan

One of my good friends (whose name I won't mention) always says that if she doesn't have a family of her own by the time she reaches age 30, she's going to take matters into her own hands and adopt or find a sperm donor.

Sounds pretty intense, but it also sounds an awful lot like the new J.Lo movie "The Back-Up Plan." I saw the movie with some of my friends this weekend (including the girl with her own back-up plan).

Based on the last couple of romantic comedies I've seen (When In Rome, Leap Year, etc.) my expectations were not exactly high. Still, I was somewhat disappointed. Jennifer Lopez used to be so good in romantic comedies (Hello, The Wedding Planner!!) and just didn't measure up in this one.

Maybe it was just far too unrealistic...

2.5/5

DC Kickball Kickoff

To get everyone ramped up for the kickball season, the folks at DC Kickball threw a happy hour party at The Exchange.

For just $10, kickball players from every team in the league could come in mix, mingle and drink all they wanted. As you can probably imagine that made for an incredibly intense party. Sadly the first game of the season was "rained" out today.

Secretly, I was pleased at having an extra week to de-rust my kickball skills...

I'm not going to say yet which team I'm on...I'll wait until I regain my skills from the third grade.