Go Salty, It's Your Birthday

Friday was my birthday. Turned out to be a great birthday. What a pleasant surprise.

I haven't been too into birthdays the past couple of years. Each year more and more people move away from NYC, and fewer and fewer people are willing to stay out late and make a good show of it. The combination has been rather depressing. Five years ago I used to be able to put a nice party together, with lots of people I knew, and lots I didn't, and it was always fun. Last year I felt like I was pulling teeth to get some friends together.

So this year I was planning to keep it low-key. My girlfriend was planning to take me out to dinner, and then I was planning to see some family the next day. Chill. Easy. Perfect.

Friday came around like any other day. It was a busy day at work, made more so by the fact that people wanted to get out early for Good Friday. So the day went by pretty quickly, with a nice sprinkling of phone calls and emails. Definitely feels good to be loved.

I got out of work at around 4:30, and my girlfriend came to meet me. We stopped off for a margarita at Dos Caminos, and just talked and caught up. It was very nice, and very relaxing. Then onto the subway, towards home, to relax for a bit and get ready for dinner.

Dinner was great. She surprised me with the choice of restaurants, and we really loved the meal. The setting was great, and the service was friendly and slow, perfect in keeping with my theme of the relaxed birthday. They even wrote "Happy Birthday" in chocolate sauce around the dessert plate. All because they made the effort to check the details in the online reservation my girlfriend had made. How cool.

After dinner my girlfriend thought it would be nice to meet up with my brother and his fiance (who he just proposed to last weekend!!!) for a drink. My mood was more in line with going home to relax by ourselves, but I didn't want to be a total grinch. So we went.

Into the bar we walked, then up the stairs to where they were haning out. Whoa! Holy shit! What are all my friends doing here? SURPRISE!

My sneaky little girlfriend, with access to my email address book, and some help from my brother and future sister-in-law, put together my very first surprise party. That just blew me away. Not only was it a total shock, but it really made me feel so great. She spent so much time and put forth so much effort to rally the troops for me. I was so touched. Really.

So my low-key birthday plans didn't quite work out. I had a few more drinks than planned. I stayed up later than planned. And I loved every minute of it.