Birthday Bonanza

Against all logic, I am dating someone of the same astrological sign as me. Scorpios, no less. Dustin was born just 5 days before me, on Halloween of 1980. For his birthday, after a long and arduous day of work for both of us, I treated him to a fancy-schmancy dinner at Tabla, an Indian-American fusion place that is crazy good. It's the kind of place that makes you feel like a king (or raja) and gives you amuse-bouches and pinafores.


I got a ginger snap with my dinner, a cocktail that consists of ginger-infused vodka and champagne. Oh, so good!


The gift-giving began before the appetizers. I gave him a one-of-a kind card made by our friend Stephanie, created with Mexican Lottery paper.


The card was in one of his gifts, a stylin' new messenger bag made of ballistic nylon. I'm still not sure if he likes it. He seems to in this picture though.


Also in the bag was a DVD collection of one of his favorite shows, Home Movies, and tickets to go see the Peaches concert later this month.


After our super-delicious meal consisting of steaks and such, we had delicious desserts. Mine was a flourless chocolate cake with chili pepper chocolate mousse.


And Dustin got the Tahitian Vanilla Bean Kulfi, or something, complete with birthday wishes from the staff. (We told them his name was Jack Bauer, the greatest hero of American television.)


And who could have dessert without fresh tea? Not Dustin. No teabag either - just a straight-up strainer over the cup.


The next day the P.S. crew surprised Dustin with a little party in his editing room... we didn't want to give away the surprise by calling him to the kitchen, so we brought the party (and all the blurry pictures) to him.


We got him sweet rice empanadas from Dos Caminos.


And, just because they were a day old (he was out of the office on his real b-day), we also got him an ice-cream cake.


We sang.


He made a wish.


And then we gave him a gift and card.



The gift was, appropriately enough, a mustache trimmer.


I think it was a good birthday for him.


My birthday was the following Saturday... but on Friday morning I came to work to find autumn tulips waiting for me from Dustin. (one, two, three.... "awwwww")


They're so beautiful! My favorite.


The day was like any other... all work, very little play, and the sun went down at like 4pm.


But it sure was beautiful.


At around 5:30, I could hear rustling going on in the kitchen. I thought, "Yeah, they're gonna give me cake!! Whoo-hoo!" Then my boss Zarina came into my room and said, in an excited whisper, "We're all going to gather in John's room with a cake, then John's going to call Patrick in and we're all going to surprise him for his birthday!!" I said, "Uh, okay." In my mind I was saying, "What? Patrick?! It's my birthday!" But yes, Patrick's birthday was going to be the day after mine, so I signed his card and gathered in John's room with everyone else.


We lit the candles on his cake.


He came in and we all yelled "Surprise!!"


We sang, and he made a wish like people do on their birthdays.


We gave him a card, of course.


Then everyone started singing again and they pulled out a cheesesteak, a delicious food which I enjoy at least weekly, with candles on it. They did a good job of surprising me.


I got a card too.


Pat and I enjoyed our birthday delicacies.


Everyone had some cake, and some people shared my cheesesteak.



Mmmmm.




We interrupt this message for a hat-haired Dustin interlude.


Saturday, guess what? I had to work. Awesome! On my way in, I saw the familiar catering setup, director's chairs, and trailers set up on 28th Street. They were filming something there, an action movie from the looks of it, I realized when I got to 5th Avenue.


Craziness!


P.A.s stood on the lookout for looky-loos like myself. It turned out to be a movie called I Am Legend, in which Will Smith plays the last man alive, struggling to survive in a world inhabited by vampires.


Luckily I only had to work until about 3pm. I went to Union Square to see Stephanie and support her stationery-selling ways.


That night Dustin took me to my favorite restaurant, Otto, which is owned by Mario Batalli and has the most amazing arugula salad this side of the Mediterranean.



Dinner was delicious but of course I only have pictures of the dessert. I had a gelato trifecta, which included olive oil gelato, pumpkin gelato, and chocolate-chocolate chip gelato.


It went fast.


And Dustin had some kind of crazy tart cobbler type of thing.


Who can have dessert without coffee? Not me, not since we went to Mexico.


Dustin was his charming self.


I was just excited to have an occasion to wear this fancy shirt I got when I was in L.A.


The whole night was just lovely!


Later Dustin gave me this freaking awesome bag/purse:


And his other gift was wrapped in the now-traditional wrapping paper, the Sunday Times Crossword.



He picked up on a hint I dropped about a month ago and got me a record player! I was so psyched! He had to go all the way to Brooklyn to get it.


It was a lovely birthday for both of us. Too much good food to handle! 26 rotations, and here's to 26 + more!

love,
*jenna*