March 3rd was the ultimate “great day”. I knew it had potential, being my birthday and all, but I’d left any plans up in the air, so wasn’t expecting some miraculous turn of events that would spike this one waaaaay off the awesome chart. But that’s exactly what happened. Your 21st is meant to be a big deal; we mightn’t live in the States, but Canada, Australia, most places really, give this particular day in peoples lives a fair bit more attention than a lot of others. I’m stoked to say that my 21st was the BEST BIRTHDAY experience in my wise and worldly 21 years. I’ve recounted this story many a time already, but knowing the way details get forgotten, I plan on going into some depth because there isn’t a single thing about my 21st that I want to forget. So here goes…
I’d had the idea that Las Vegas was going to be my celebration location of choice, so I could really rock the “I’m legal to drink anywhere” business and get the full effect. So for a few months that had been the general plan for Jessie and I but as the day crept closer, it just wasn’t a feasible option. I’d neglected to inform anyone about this change in plans until a couple of weeks before my b’day, and when my buddies Sherri and Caroline learned I was going for the “understated” approach, they weren’t having any of it. They tasked me with picking any restaurant in Calgary I’d like to go to for a celebratory dinner the night of my birthday (an idea inspired by my infamy for wanting to try every restaurant we ever drove past). True to character, I Googled my way around the city and found a trendy, laid back little spot called Balance Lounge and Eatery that I thought would give us a pretty good selection of tasty food and adventurous cocktails. Which I’m happy to report it did. But we haven’t reached that point in the story yet.
So with these nice dinner plans in place I was contentedly resigned to the fact that my 21st was going to be a pretty simple, small occasion spent happily with my 3 best friends in Calgary. I seriously expected nothing more. I was wrong, and boy am I glad. Jessie had told me that I had to keep the Sunday after my b’day free and I wasn’t too perplexed by that one really. I guessed she might have something in the works like a trip to the movies or a few friends coming around, so it wasn’t until she kept saying how pumped she was for my b’day that I started to perk up at the idea that something more might be in the works.
Waking up on Wednesday morning and going about my normal pre-work routine, I came into the kitchen and stuck onto the bench were a bunch of sticky notes that Jessie had laid out all pretty. H-A-P-P-Y 2-1-S-T B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y was spelled out one letter at a time in every color of the Crayola rainbow, and propped up at the back was a pack of green tea. Then noted on a couple of extra sticky’s was “Your Mum asked me to buy you some green tea because it’s yummy and good for hangovers” (I tested that theory well this past week), “She’s lined something special up for Sunday” (oh had she ever!), “Yes, I’m awesome at arts and crafts”(True sticky note skill). So off to work I went in my b’day outfit (new black skirt and white shirt with a big bow on the front – I looked like a giant present myself, how appropriate eh) with my tea and packed lunch in hand.
Parked my car and walked up to work, swiped in, powered up the computer, put my lunch in the fridge and proceeded to make myself a cup of my new green tea. Had to giggle at myself as I put some leaves into my little strainer ball and remembered how my 65 year old step dad, drank litres of tea each day with his strainer. Now I loved tea and had my very own strainer. That was the moment I realized I was getting old! So the morning began to roll along then at 8.30 reception phoned and told me I had a delivery. Off to the 4th floor I went, a little bit excited for what might be there for me. Sitting on the bench was a very pretty flower arrangement, 21 pink carnations scattered with babies breath. This delivery was the first of many coordination efforts between Mum and my friends Sherri and Caroline, though I didn’t know it at the time. Oh, and not only did I get this giant bunch of flowers, but attached was a rather conspicuous helium balloon proclaiming “Happy Birthday” on ribbon long enough that it could float high above my cubicle walls. I get the idea Mum may have wanted to make sure this occasion didn’t pass unnoticed – she succeeded! Every passerby would stop and comment on my pretty flowers, ask about the reason for them then exclaim “You’re only 21, oh!” Do I have wrinkles already?? “How I wish I were 21 again!”. Yep, you guessed it, I’m junior to my coworkers by an average of about 30 years. So the advertising worked, I’ve never had so many birthday wishes in my life!
A friend of mine, Saudah, (who’s actually the girl who took over my old job when I started working with Gord, my new boss), rang me up and told me to keep 12-12.45 open in my calendar as Gord was coming up to my building and wanted to get together. All this was very typical as he shifts around multiple offices and when he’s at the main office we tend to book a time to sit down and sort through the mountain of paper accumulated in the couple of days since last seeing him. So at about 12 I’m ready to do some paper shuffling with Gord, that is, until he beckons around the corner and out pops a grinning Saudah, “Surprise! We’re going out for sushi!”. Sushi is our “thing”, we have a place, Kinjo, that we love to visit and it seems that in passing she’d mentioned to Gord that we love lunching at Kinjo, and that it was my birthday (in passing, pfffft!). This inspired the plot that resulted in our little adventure. A little flustered I packed up the papers on my desk and shoved them in my cupboard, donned my jacket and left the office in a minute flat. Outside in his VIP parking spot was parked his sweeeeeeet BMW, in which I got to ride shotgun. Gord mentioned that there was something a bit special about the car and my guess of “It’s a batmobile?” wasn’t far off. With the push of a button the roof lifted off, folded in 3 parts and tucked neatly into the boot. My first ride in a convertible! So off we zoomed, top down, sun out, a balmy 10 degrees, down the road to Kinjo. Did I mention how freaking awesome this car looked, and sounded, purrrrrrrr. I was in automobile heaven. At the restaurant we chose a booth and shuffled in, introducing Gord and his wife, Jan, to sushi heaven. The fact that they were rather opposed to raw fish was soon forgotten, as all the other yummy options Kinjo had to offer were unveiled. I sat there laughing harder than I’ve laughed in a while, as the classic comedy sketch (the quirks of a couple who’ve been together since high school) unfolded. The appropriate oohs and ahhs were made as each dish was brought out, progressively more artistic than the last. And by the end, I’m proud to say we had 2 happy sushi converts. The end of the lunch was rather climatic as Saudah piped up, “It’s her birthday…” as the bill was being processed. So lo and behold a box of Pockies with a brightly shining single candle were brought over and placed in front of me as all the staff (chefs, waiters, owner included) gathered around to sing me Happy Birthday. Tacked on the end was a snippet of “haf I tord you ladely dat I wuv you” as I sat there grinning, 40 sets of eyes on me, particularly grateful at that moment that I don’t blush.
Not 5 minutes after I’d walked back into the office, reception phoned again to inform me I’d had another delivery. So back to the 4th floor I went, perplexed as to what might have arrived for me. This time, sitting up on the bench was a unique bouquet – an “Edible Arrangement” – from those thoughtful sons of guns, Sherri and Caroline. A perfectly appropriate question here would be, what on earth, is an edible arrangement? Well as I found out, it is a replication of a flower arrangement, but rather than being made with the standard variety of flora, it was instead put together with pieces of fruit! There were pineapple flower heads with melon ball centres, honeydew and rockmelon segments with ornamental crinkle cut edges, dark chocolate dipped apple wedges and the token greenery in the arrangement? Well Kale of course! Mum would later recommend to Caroline that she bring this unique type of floristry to Australia, where “Edible Arrangements” would boom being that there’s nothing of the sort back home. With 2 pretty bunches of “flowers” perched atop my desk (one being advertised with a “Help yourself
” sticky) if I hadn’t drawn enough attention to the commotion of my desk, I sure did by the time the last chocolate covered apple wedge had disappeared from the bouquet.
Saudah had been arranging a team building event for our group, and being the extraordinarily thorough planner that she is, was keen to check out the prospective restaurant before finalizing the booking. A simple solution to her public transport conundrum, was for me to head down to our other office and pick her up at the end of the day so we could stop by and scope the potential place out. So 45 minutes later I’m down at the office and walk inside to say hi and collect Saudah. “I’ll just be a couple of minutes, just go take a seat at my desk and I’ll be right over and we can leave” she said – I should really stop falling for that. A swarm of people start to gather around her cubical, and I joke that this reminds me of my last day working in my old position, an occasion when I was presented with a 20 pound cheesecake and a heartwarming goodbye. Then it dawns on me, Saudah’s got me… again. With her very tricky “popping around the corner” skills, Saudah appears wheeling a cart with two delicious looking cheesecakes on it. A chorus of Happy Birthday breaks out (an octave, or 5, lower than my lunchtime serenade) and I’m once again, thanking my lucky stars I’m not a blusher! Though I think my giant grin may have given away the fact that I was super stoked and amazed that they’d pulled off a birthday surprise with a 45 minute warning, card and all! After putting in a solid effort to help erode the cakes, and a few group happy snaps, my work day concluded and I waddled back to the car. I never would have imagined a day spent at work could actually turn out to be both in itself, and forming the foundations of, the best birthday ever!