Episode 04: "The Perfect Day" (+)

At midnight on my birthday, all four of my new flatmates showed up at my room door with a chocolate cake and sang me "Happy Birthday." The two Amandas, Daniel and Rebecca--people I hardly knew at all so far--had taken the time to buy me a cake and make my birthday special from minute one. I couldn't believe how warm and compassionate they were, and their gesture went such a long way towards making me feel at home with them.

Throughout the day I got e-mails, Facebook messages, and calls from friends and family, everyone wishing me a great birthday. One of the longer calls was from my mom, who patched me through to Grandma and Poppy. It felt so, so good to hear from all of them--especially with what positive things they had to say.

Right after that call, I went to the supermarket to buy food for making dinner. The idea was to do a reversal of the usual birthday shenanigans, expecting and/or hoping my friends would do something nice for me on my day or whatever. Following suit from a friend I had met back in New York, I was looking to use my birthday to show my friends I appreciated having them around to celebrate it with me. So cooking for my buddies was the name of the game.

Val volunteered his place for me to make dinner. He gave me a heads up that his roommate was having four friends over, and was wondering if it was cool for them to join us. I hesitated due to my limited food supply and limited cooking skills, but Val assured me that these new guys would be bringing food of their own, so I gave the green light with some relief.

When I arrived at Val's place, he'd already decorated the room with balloons. And his girlfriend, Avital, came over and helped him put on the finishing touches to everything. All of their effort for my birthday made me feel pretty damn happy.

Avital's special balloon for me.

And it's flip side.

I started hustling on the quesadillas, burning a few as I went. Everyone was pretty gracious about it, though. Threw on some peas, carrots and rice, while Val's roommate Fabiana helped me with pasta. Meanwhile, her friends had arrived, bringing a grand total of two snack food bags as their contribution. As in two bags. Of snack food. Through some miracle though, there was enough real food for everyone. Ridiculous.

My sorry attempt at a quesadilla on the left.
But potential for future meat on the right.

Didn't screw up too bad on this dish, though.

These aren't my hands.

By the time everyone had come, it was about ten people in chilling in the living room, and I was churning out plate after plate. At one point, though, my activity at the stove got stopped cold. Avital turned off the lights and she and Val brought in a chocolate cake with candles on it, singing me a happy birthday. I could not have been more touched.

Genuinely surprised and thankful.

The rest of the party was chill and enjoyable. The new guys were friendly and talkative, everyone was complimenting the food, and people were pretty smiley all around. It was a great time. Here's pretty much everyone who was there, minus Avital and Val.

Full house of cool folks.

Afterward, took the pals out to see the movie Cloverfield. The crew included Daniel (my new roommate in the green shirt up there), Avital, Val, and Jeremy. The movie was everything I was expecting, and a perfect way to make my birthday shine.

Thanks for producing this one, J.J. Abrams.

You somehow transformed terrifying pseudo-9/11
imagery into a birthday gift.

And whaddya know--cooking for my buds and taking them out to a movie felt really good. I guess the only other thing I could compare it to was my Santa-served Christmas. Felt like growing up a little bit. Although no promises on a year-to-year extravaganza or anything when I come home. Being "mature" on my birthday was really expensive.

Anyway. The next day I received holiday packages from friends back home (and later I received cards from family) which put my feel-good factor over the top. The amount of love I received from everyone had me on top of the world.

Thank you all for that.

Shalom,
Eric