Happy Birthday To Me

Day: Three Hundred and Twelve

Photo taken on Thursday, June 9, 2011 in the downstairs portion of Arturo's on York Avenue in New York, NY at 742pm. (Pictured from me to the left and around: Tania, Armando, Cassandra, Valerie, James, Sonji, Julia, Peggy, and Dorrette)

The Surge is going all out to celebrate my birthday this evening (two days early) and I am loving every minute of it!


When I come home from college, I make the decision to not celebrate my birthday anymore. I figure, 'eh, I'm turning 22, think I'm getting too old to make my friends go out or come over for a Harry Potter or Spiderman cake, maybe it's time I grow up and try to pass by the day without anyone noticing'...but Maeve won't let me (which I don't blame her because celebrating birthdays are fun). When I tell her my plan for not having a plan for my birthday that year she refuses to hear any of it. She marches down my basement and proceeds to type out an evite for a BBQ on June 11. A few days later I have a boatload of people showing up for my birthday BBQ so my parents take me to Price Club and I purchase a ton of food and Michelob Ultra (Beer-Water) only for the birthday to come and NO ONE show up. There are about five people who end up making the day special for me yet I couldn't stop feeling like a giant loser. People forget about me when I go to school in Colorado (though I'm sure they will say I abandoned them but isn't that what AIM was for then? To keep in touch?) and I guess responding to my party and not showing up is to teach me some kind of lesson? It is cruel so I swiftly drop many "friends" and my dad learns to like the Beer-Water over Coors Light through the course of the summer since it takes up our whole fridge.

I then vow to never celebrate my birthday again.

But each year, my birthday isn't forgotten, people text me a few weeks in advance, "what are we doing?" and I try to shy away from it and pretend it's not going to happen. I still fear a repeat of 2004, getting excited for a big event only to have no one show up. It was embarrassing and even though I played it off with sarcasm, it still hurt. Last year, I tell people, "I'm going to see the Karate Kid because it opens on my birthday and I like Jackie Chan. You are welcome to come if you so desire." Too afraid to invite people, I leave it in their hands, and on June 11th, my friends and family surround me in several rows of the Farmingdale Multiplex. And it is a start to a great birthday weekend.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Mwando comes into my office and asks what we are doing for my birthday. I am floored. How on earth does he know about my birthday? I smile and shrug, leaving it in his hands to do what he wishes. He converses with Peggy, Bossdad, and Dr. Zong and anyone else interested in celebrating my 29th year and here I am, surrounded by my fun-loving coworkers and great Italian food. We are loud and rowdy and the drinks are flowing and the conversation has our laughter carrying up the staircase into the main room above us. The party can end here and I would be thrilled that this is my birthday celebration but it doesn't end at Arturo's.

It continues on to Brandy's, a piano bar on East 84th Street. It is here where I consume way too many fruity drinks and sing aloud to almost every song the young, talented, (and cute!) piano player bangs out. After he and the other bar patrons sing Happy Birthday to me, he begins taking requests on napkins. Of course I ask for my two favorite Billy Joel songs and he honestly tells me he doesn't know the words to Zanzibar but he can proudly fake it. I laugh and tell him any Billy Joel song is fine and he lapses into Scenes From An Italian Restaurant. I think I loudly proclaim that I love him several times through the night because everything I request, he plays. He even treats us to Mary Jane's Last Dance and I silently forgive him for skipping one of my favorite lyrics in the song. The fact he knows all of these artists is astounding and I give him credit for remembering such a variety of different tunes.

Finally, around two, Bossdad drags me out of there and back to his apartment where I wipe off the remnants of my make up and fall onto the couch in an exhausted heap. I am very thankful for everyone coming out to celebrate my birthday tonight! I couldn't ask for a better start to my last year of my twenties! So much fun!

^_\