The party

Ok, I'm finally going to blog about the fantabulous birthday party. It's taken so long because I wanted to do it justice! Anyway, the party was two months late, so I guess I can be a few weeks late writing it up. :)

As far as I knew, that evening we had plans with JD's brother F for his birthday at Café Solo. It was a lazy Saturday, and JD watched tv at my house while I went for a run (JD still can't run even now with his torn ligament, sadly!). I had a nice run along the Seine, and then stopped at the corner flower store to get a stalk of "lucky bamboo" for my friend Hl who was in the middle of a complicated financial transaction.

By then I was running late, and when I got upstairs, I offered to JD that he could go along to meet his brother, and I would catch up. But he said he would stay with me, although it would make us really quite late, because I had to take a shower and then stop by Hl's and her husband's restaurant. I suspected nothing.

As I was hurrying to get ready, I got a text message from an acquaintance saying just "Happy birthday." Of course, it wasn't my birthday. She's a little crazy anyway, so I just shrugged it off.

We walked up to Hl's, and I felt very pleased to be stepping out with my good-looking guy. He had moussed his hair, which was unusual, but I had thought nothing of it. Hl insisted on serving us "une petite coupette" of champagne (of course she was in on the whole game). I was all set to decline, because of how late we were, but JD said we had time. Meanwhile it's 20 to nine, and we were supposed to meet his brother at 8:15. I was a little confused, but only a litte. I figured JD knew his brother best.

Then F text messaged JD saying "On a faim!" ("We're hungry!") JD showed it to me, but I said, oh, is someone with F? JD said no, and told me that "On a faim" was just something you say as kids. Believe it or not, I believed him! But why wouldn't I have? It wasn't anywhere near my birthday. I had no suspicion of anything at all.

On the way there, for some reason I mentioned how much I loved him. A lot a lot, I said; the most possible. "Really?" he asked. "You won't love me any more than that tomorrow?" I didn't think it was possible, I said.

Well. We got there, and I was expecting F, but what did I see? At a long table all along the side of the restaurant were all of my friends. I'm sure I looked like a complete idiot trying to take it all in, looking from face to face and trying to understand why all of my friends were there. There were red balloons and a large "Happy Birthday" banner. I think I finally remembered that JD had said, months ago, that he had wanted to plan a birthday party for me, and that's what made me put it all together and realize that this was my birthday party.



I was shocked. Stunned. Beside myself. I actually cried for joy, I was so touched that JD had put this together and that some twenty of my closest friends in Paris were there to help me celebrate my birthday. (You know, I hadn't celebrated with all my friends on my real birthday because my family had been in town.)

Who was there: Mk and Tn (who are leaving next weekend to move to Austin; we'll miss them!). From the group blog (now sadly defunct), Mk and Rn and Paris blog diva Mg. Js and A, my two oldest friends in Paris who are still living in Paris (N moved away last year). JD's brother F (the bait!) and JD's friends D and St. My language partner An. Friends from my expat group Th, Ax, and Cy and JP (H couldn't come, of course, and Am had sent a nice note). And linguist friend KZ, who's here again for the month of June.

One of the first things I noticed was that everyone was wearing nametags saying "Hello, my name is [name] and I'm a [moppety] fan." (It was my real name, really, but I've censored it here. :)



The nametags really touched me for some reason. It turned out that JD had only come up with these the night before, and F had spent the whole day trying to get the right label sheets so he could print them out on stickers.

It was just stunning to see everyone there, a kind of worlds-colliding feeling! Mg took photos; there are more than what I've posted here.



As I talked to everyone, the stories started coming out. Apparently a lot of the invites happened when I was in the bathroom. JD and I would be with some of my friends, and when I was in les toilettes, JD would tell them about the party and/or get their email address. He had been planning this for almost a month!

Aside from asking people to wear red (my favorite color) he also gave them gift suggestions, which were right on. Red, of course; containers, of course. (Hey Noo, did you know that there is a WHOLE ENTIRE STORE just for CONTAINERS?) And small and consumable. People did lovely things with these ideas, everything from a red picnic cooler bag to a CD of red songs (what is a red song, you ask? I guess you know it went you hear it!), red candles, a red ladybug timer, red salad tongs, and so on. What lovely friends to go to the trouble for me!

Oh, and JD had also contacted some of my friends and family to have them call me during the party. That was pretty neat. Funny that they were all in on it!

One of the best things about the evening was the beautiful, bigger-than-me bouquet of lilies that JD got me. They lasted almost two weeks, and made my apartment smell just wonderful. I took photos with my phone, and now whenever I make a call I get to enjoy them again.



Then there was the cake. The weekend before, JD and I had gone to Th's birthday, and because she had been craving an American-style devil's food chocolate cake, I had made one. I had said to JD at the time that I believe very strongly that birthday cakes should be homemade. That's how we were raised, with my mother making wonderful cakes in the shape of whatever it was we wanted. I allowed that perhaps it was different in France, because the bakeries were so good here, but I still felt that birthday cakes should be homemade.

Of course JD took that as a challenge! He doesn't have an oven himself, so he asked his friends who run the restaurant to bake a cake for me (and one for F). Dn apparently got up at 5:30 in the morning to bake the cakes. Wow.

The whole experience was overwhelming in the best possible way. Thanks, JD! And thanks everyone. This really made me feel loved. Best birthday ever. Even two months late. Heck, especially two months late. That's what made it such a wonderful surprise.