A Month of Birthdays

[cjsmith]

I wanted a really special celebration this year, very personalized, with close friends who think I'm awesome.

Well, I sorta neglected to
- keep some time free to schedule any sort of activity
- figure out just what sort of thing I'd like to do and with whom
- have a close-knit group of friends who all know each other

So it's looking a little different. Know what? I must say it ROCKS.

It started over a week ago now. So far, specifically in honor of my birthday, I have
- done one and a half jigsaw puzzles
- consumed multiple glasses of wine
- opened several fun cards and a couple presents
- eaten a scrumptious bbq-pork-and-ALL-the-trimmings dinner with two Los Angeles friends
- been sung to, blown out candles, and eaten ice cream cake
- eaten at Kabul with SIXTEEN PEOPLE (!!) all of whom were under strict vows of secrecy until I showed up (!!!)
- been sung to, blown out candles, and eaten chocolate cake (yeah, not stuttering, second cake)
- played a few rounds of TCRF aka Oh Hell
- gone to a paint-your-own-pottery place (hey, second childhood here) and painted a spoon rest with a starry sky showing the Big Dipper (cue the groans)

A lot of this is Rob's doing. And my birthday itself isn't even for another week!

Rob really got me with that dinner at Kabul last night. He'd been asking me for days whom I would want to invite if I were having a party. I kept thinking that I didn't know what the party would be -- wine tasting would want a different crowd than a card game party. I also kept thinking that the only free day coming up was going to be October 13. In particular, I knew yesterday was busy; I was calling at a square dance for a good chunk of the day and we had two houseguests that evening. So I didn't come up with an answer for him. Heck, I had two more weeks, right?

So Rob gamely invited a couple of my LJ-friends whom he had never even met, a small pile of pilot buddies, a coworker from my previous job, and pretty much the entire square dance we were at. He got all the non-dancers to gather at the restaurant early, sent one of the square dancers off for cake (thank you, Jane!), told several other square dancers to decline any dinner invitation I might make, maneuvered me into agreeing that Kabul was the restaurant a small handful of us should choose that evening, got most folk to "say goodbye" at the end of the dance and "go home", told me we were going to go eat in an hour because "Jane has an errand to run", made sure he took a good forty minutes just to sign fyellin's logbook so we wouldn't arrive early, and trolled for parking in such a way as to be pretty sure I wouldn't see layer's distinctive license plate.

Then we walked in and a bunch of people yelled SURPRISE and I couldn't, for about the first half minute, figure out why. Weren't we SUPPOSED to be eating at this restaurant? Why does Tim have a camera out? (I did my usual response to a camera: making a wild goofy face.) Except... wow, this table sure is big, and... what is Shantanu doing here? And Andres? Wait a minute. OH. A surprise party for ME. I suspect that's approximately when I turned bright red.

So my birthday has been pretty darn good so far, and I won't technically even reach it until next weekend. That day, I will watch airshow acro from a boat on the Bay, maybe do some fun stuff that evening if I can figure out what it should be and whom to invite (hey, cards and wine anybody?), and the following day go to a class on oxy-acetylene cutting and welding.

And the 13th is still free. Heh.

Comments

Great story!

[juverna.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're having a joyous International CJ's Birthday Month so far!

[anirishpenguin.livejournal.com]

A very Happy Birthday to a wonderful person.

Hugs

[hnybny.livejournal.com]

Happy B-day! I just discovered that my B-day list on my friends list has ceased to function. That is a baaaaaad thing. October is a busy B-day month on my list.

Sounds like you had fun!

[composerjk.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. May your birthday continue to be fabulous!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Happy Early Birthday!!! Celebrate Well! Celebrate Often!!!

:):)

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday Fellow Libra!

May I enquire as to which date?

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

yay!!! hooray for bday surprises! and double-hooray for lots of bday celebrating!! i did that when i turned 30, and it was SO worth that tiny extra bit of effort!!

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Oh my! When is your actual birthday? Mine is the 23rd! (And this is a round number for me!)

The surprise party sounds wonderful -- as does rfrench! And so much other cool stuff ... it's great to have a two-week birthday! Happy, happy, happy!

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

Happy 'birthday'! :)

[jtidwell.livejournal.com]

Oh, what fun. :-) Happy early birthday!

[callyperry.livejournal.com]

Happy almost birthday! That sure looks like a great party. I must tell Rob he rocks.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Happy Birthday! Did you raise your hand tonight?

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Happy Surprise Birthday!!! :)

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Wish I could be there for the celebration(s) -- it sounds like you're having a GREAT time! Good on ya! And happy birthday (early)!

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Since I way too forgetful to trust I'll remember, happy birthday! :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nah, but I enjoyed the It's Not My Birthday chorus!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The 6th, and me too (forty). :-) Rob is getting major cool points here.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm the 6th. You are a Libra too? I think the best part of being an October baby (well, ok, that's *most* of Libra anyway) is the opal birthstone. I adore opals.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

September Libra here - 24th - 1° of Libra. I used to do the month-long b'day celebration. When I lived in the Bay Area Northern Ren Faire was 'my' b'day prezzie to myself at least one weekend. My last 'grand' celebration was my 50th - 9 years ago.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Happy Unbirthday!

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Well, we shall have to continue your celebration of Happy Birthmonth tonight! :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Speaking of eating -- what, aren't all celebrations about eating? -- what kind of food do you two like?

[rampling.livejournal.com]

hitchhiker tends to be extremely flexible about what to eat, though he says that he prefers to avoid eating Indian food here, since it's a bit silly to eat what you get at home when you're in another country (similarly, I declined joining a group going to Pizza Hut during one of my visits to India).

Me, I like a wide range of foods, especially those that make avoiding cilantro easy. Of course you already know how I feel about cheese, but hitchhiker sometimes finds some foods too rich -- so perhaps emphasizing cheese would over-rich him out.

Given our flexibility and our Fine Celebration of your Happy Birthmonth, how 'bout you suggest a place or three that you particularly favor, and we can pick from those.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured Indian food would be a suboptimal choice.

Here are a few ideas of places serving both cheese and lighter fare:
1) Crepe Daniel, in Saratoga: French crepes and the occasional dessert set on fire. Not very pricey.
2) Fiesta del Mar, in Mountain View: Mexican, with some of the most heart-endangering cheese enchiladas around. Also not very pricey.
3) A steak house of some sort (Birk's in SJ is good but pricey), particularly nice if hitchhiker enjoys steak and doesn't get many opportunities to eat it.
4) Cascal, in Mountain View: scrumptious tapas and Spanish food.
5) Ristorante Don Giovanni, in Mountain View: good Italian.

I'm having trouble thinking of more options. Generally I eat out for dinner whenever Rob is out of town :-)

[rampling.livejournal.com]

The intersection of our preferences from your fine list turns out to be #1. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

So be it! :)

[rampling.livejournal.com]

P.S. I haven't seen a cat for FOUR LOOOOOOOOONG DAYS, and I'm a bit shaky....

=^..^=

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I am exactly half again as old as you are!

[gdaniels.livejournal.com]

Happy happy be-earlied birthday. :) Sounds like you're doing it up exactly right!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! That won't happen again!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

A very happy belated birthday, then!

I wouldn't want a grand celebration every year, but it's good to have one occasionally. This is the first one I've had, I think. Are you going to go for a grand one next year? :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Celebration plans will be dependent on our social situation next year. Three years of near isolation tends to limit one's options.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Yes, that's true. Sometimes it's nice to have a little quiet celebration with just two people, but admittedly that's a lot nicer when it was a *choice*.