I celebrated my wife's birthday recently. The celebration was string of events that started with a home-made mother's day brunch. Then on the day of, I made cupcakes. But the execution was a little poor. I complete lack of cupcake making experience resulted in some sagging, incompetent looking cake-like things. Fortunately the taste was passable due to the Greek yogurt and Mascarpone cheese I substituted for the more traditional butter milk.
As for gifts. I thought about giving her a weekend Upstate trip in a lovely bed and breakfast. Then work got in the way and I ran out of time to plan anything thoughtful. So I resort to actual gift. I am so reluctant to spend on physical items - especially less functional, more luxurious items such as jewelry. But it seems like a very safe choice. She got her ear pierced recently, I got a pair of pearl ear studs. How I got the studs was a story by itself.
I got off work early, planning to heading to this boutique on 5th Ave. But the thunder storm came hard on NYC the moment I exited the subway. I briefly entertained the idea of heading home. But emotion took over. I braved into the heavy rain. It got so heavy that I had to find shelter by a construction site. I stayed there for a good 45min to wait out the heaviest part of the storm. Time ticked by until 10mins from store closing. So I ran into the storm again to get my gift. Fortunately the store was still open and I found exactly what I wanted.
The rain hasn't stopped when I exited the NJ Path. So I had to wait for another 15min to wait out the rain. Our dinner plan - eating out in a fancy steak house to celebrate the occasion - was obviously cancelled. So I ordered pick-up from a local restaurant. The rain continued, albeit at a more acceptable intensity - a little more than a drizzle, but far less than a storm.
The restaurant obviously missed my order placed through Seamless. They had to make everything on the spot, which turned out to be the best part. The freshly made pizza-like entre and everything else were fantastic - a reasonable reward for my third run in the rain in that crazy afternoon.
The whole idea of gift giving on birthday is quite absurd by itself. On retrospect, I would prefer to turn every birthday into a series of memorable events and deeply personal experience. Hopefully this past birthday for her qualified. I know it did for me.
