Birthday Parties are worth the calories...

Last night, my friends orchestrated a surprise birthday for Elisabeth at Olive Garden.  As we all know, Olive Garden is not a "figure friendly" restaurant.  So in my quest for a healthy choice at my favorite Italian chain, I relied on my favorite website: calorieking.com.  It is great to pull up restaurants and see the calorie count in dishes before deciding on an 1100 calorie salad at Chili's (which I wish I would have done BEFORE I ordered and ate 3/4 of it!).  I love food, but I am five foot two (and a half!) with the metabolism of a sloth so needless to say, I have to work at staying fit.  After we are seated at a large table, our birthday girl walks in and we watch her open her gifts.  The waiters bring the salad and breadsticks, and I am tempted my the buttery goodness of the fresh breadsticks, but miraculously I refrain.  Then I order the healthiest thing I find on calorieking.com which is Venetian Apricot Chicken.  After watching people eat delicious breadsticks and classic Italian meals like Chicken Parmasan and Lasagna, my strength waned and a broke down and shared a dessert.  After we eat and pay, we sit and talk and laugh.  The pitch of all our laughter combined sounded like a symphony of happiness.  I'm sure it probably sounded like wild hyenas to the rest of the restaurant, but we were in our own world.  As I left, I realized that birthday parties at Olive Garden should always be an exception to any diet!