Last year my birthday fell on the most hectic day of planning of the entire year, which is to say it was the day before the day on which we had to pretend like we had the slightest inkling we knew what would happen the entire NEXT year, despite barely being able to confidently predict what we would do this month, let alone the current year. Internally we call it KP planning, and the preparation for the presentation is the hardest thing we have to do as demand planners. I was brand-spanking-new to the job when I had to go through it last year, and even though I'm now slightly more seasoned this year, I'm still relatively new to my product lines. Anyways, last year I ended up staying late on my birthday preparing for the big annual KP meeting the following day. When my manager found out that it was my birthday, hours after I would have normally gone home, he promptly tried to send me home, but of course, we still had work to do. He and my colleagues did try to wrap things up quickly though, once they realized, and of course I appreciated that.
This year, the KP meeting is two days after my birthday, so while I was still in crazy KP planning mode, at least I was hopeful that I wouldn't be held too late on my birthday. It is in the mindset I work up on a summer Tuesday to my first birthday in Connecticut. We moved to Stamford, CT less than a month ago with my company's relocating of the headquarters from Scottsdale, AZ. In doing so, I had left my comfortable home of 11 years, my family, and my dog who would be staying with my sister temporarily.
I got ready for work basically like usual. Jaiman was pretty sleepy when I kissed him goodbye, and he seemed to have forgotten to say happy birthday for a moment, but then remembered and said it. On my way out, I grabbed the last piece of leftover pizza that hadn't been touched for breakfast, but after the first bite, decided to trash it outside the elevator.
Needing a new source of breakfast, I debated going to a store or eating a bag of chips from our snack closet at work, but then remembered that Taco Bell is right across the street. I pulled into the drive thru and tried ordering a steak quesadilla. The lady on the other side of the speaker said that they were only serving breakfast, to which I pointed out that the breakfast menu wasn't showing. So this funny young woman came out and switched the sign to the breakfast menu, giggling the whole time, and then went back in. I asked for a breakfast quesadilla with steak and no egg, which is technically like ordering a steak quesadilla, but she allowed it. When I pulled up to the window, I double-checked that she had gotten the "no egg" part, and she had, and then asked me if I wanted jalapeno added, to which I gladly agreed.
As far as fast food breakfasts go, I can think of one time that it was truly satisfying, and that was on my birthday yesterday. That steak breakfast quesadilla no egg add jalapeno was literally dripping with melty cheesey amazingness! I was dripping cheese everywhere, but luckily managed to save my outfit with some clever maneuvers while barreling down the freeway at ---- errrr! The freeway came to a complete stop, and I came to a stop in sufficient time but the car behind me nearly didn't. I clicked my new "navigate to work" button on my phone and it directed me to get off the freeway. Apparently traffic was significantly worse than normal, but Google would guide me around the big delay, causing only a shorter delay. Ah well, more time to listen to my indulgent audiobook. But as soon as my quesadilla was gone, I wished I had 14 more, it was so good.
On the way to work on my alternative route, I am pretty sure I saw a groundhog and then I definitely saw a wild turkey, so that was fun. A few of my colleagues remembered my birthday and wished me a happy birthday when I came in. Joe had bought bagels, and while it was clear it wasn't for my birthday, I accepted it as a secondary birthday breakfast.
Work went by as usual for the most part. One of the fun highlights was when the new admin just so happened to be coming around to get our birthdays for a list, and when it was my turn, I told her it was today, to which the rest of my colleagues, including my manager, responded in shock and birthday greetings. At lunchtime, my new lunch crew, Cody, Matt and David, asked what I would be doing for my lunch, and because I had work and meetings, I said I just figured I'd go to the cafeteria like usual. So the four of us headed down to the cafeteria for an uneventful but enjoyable lunch.
I did manage to leave just after 5, and when I got home, Jaiman had a present for me, and then we headed out to the Cheesecake Factory. If there's one thing I like about my new home, it's that we can walk to the mall and all sorts of restaurants and stores. It drizzled just a touch on our way, and Jaiman commented how we'll have to bring our umbrella everywhere at this rate.
As I perused the menu after being seated, I couldn't find the dish my sister Christy always ordered that was so great. I texted her to get the name of the dish, but she didn't respond right away. I did see a Chicken Chipotle Pasta on the menu that sounded tasty, so I ended up ordering that and a glass of wine. We enjoyed the bread while waiting for our food. My Chicken Chipotle Pasta was perfect - I really can't remember eating an entrée in which the vegetables actually complimented the rest of the dish so well. The ingredients were truly complimenting each other making a better whole than the sum of the parts. Then we ordered the cheesecake and the night seemed complete. We practically crawled back to our apartment and I passed out pretty much as soon as we got in.
All in all, knowing that I had to work, it was a pretty spectacular ordinary day, and about as good of a birthday as I could expect.
