I celebrated my 25th birthday last April 20. On the days leading up to my birthday, I was busy planning for a "unique" celebration since it's my first "married" birthday. I wanted it to be special because it was also my "last" birthday alone with my OHA. Next year, we'll be with LBJC. Yay!
As the 20th loomed closer, I felt panic mounting since I still haven't planned anything yet. Little did I know that while I was busting my head for ideas, my OHA was conspiring with my colleagues to throw me a surprise party! Here's how they pulled off the party:
On the 17th, my boss asked me to go with her to a meeting in Makati. She asked me to pick her up in her condo around 930 AM so we could go to the meeting together. When I got to her building, she asked me to go to her unit and snack on something since she still wan't done dressing up.
When I got to her unit, she offered me a gazillion things to munch on but I settled for the good, old Prima toast because I was trying to eat "healthier." After a while, she asked me to change my dress (I was wearing a black dress) because she's also planning on wearing a black dress and she doesn't want us showing up at Valero wearing matching outfits. I was taken aback but I didn't say anything because she's my boss. Besides, I couldn't refuse the lovely blue, green, and white Armani dress she was giving me.
So long story short, I changed into the dress. After a while, she told me that there was some emergency in Valero and that the meeting was cancelled. She told me to just go to Intercon with her to pick up spa gift certificates for the media. After about an hour in Suriya, she told me that she has to pick something up in Greenbelt so I said ok. She led me to Red Box where we saw Allan from Innove. They were talking about Jay being late for their meeting in one of the rooms there.
I was wondering why we were meeting in Red Box because there are like a gazillion other places in Greenbelt where we can have a nice, quiet meeting. My boss was talking to Allan so she told me to go on ahead and enter the "meeting room." When I entered Room 11, there were Happy Birthday signs on the billiard table and on the screen. I was kind of hungry that time so I was a little out of it and I totally didn't get it.
I looked at my boss and asked her, "What's going on?" That's when everyone started singing happy birthday. Yay! I can't believe they were able to pull this off without me finding out. We were always together so I don't really know when they planned the party.
On the 18th, I decided to treat my office mates to lunch (OHA joined in). Since we have limited options here in Pioneer, we went to Grilla. We had a cholesterol-laden feast that day. Since I forgot to take pictures, I'll just list down our orders:
-fried quail eggs
-grilled mussels with garlic and cheese
-chicharon bulaklak
-pork sisig
-chicken barbeque
-inihaw na baboy
-lechon kawali
-grilled tuna belly
-chicharon rice
Since we had an appointment with our OB on the same day, my OHA and I decided to have a mini-celebration for dinner. We went to Claw Daddy in Shangri-La. Here's what we ordered:
-Chicken Fried Pork Chop with Andoville Gravy (mine)
-Shrimp and Oyster Poboy (OHA's)
On the 19th, OHA and I went to my house to celebrate with my family. My sister wasn't with us that time so we just ate a simple but yumpy dinner of pancit canton (my request since I've been craving for this for like, weeks) and grilled liempo. There were other dishes as well but I don't remember what they were.
On the 20th, my family and I went to Mall of Asia to hunt for a good place to eat lunch. Out of all the restaurants there, I honestly didn't understand how we wound up in Burgoo. Here's what we ordered:
-Large chicken tender fingers
-Seafood Caesar supreme
-Large N'Awlins classic platter
-Hamburgoo (I dunno where the sides went!)
-Tomato and basil pasta (I was busy eating when this arrived so I wasn't able to take a picture)
On the 21st (yes, I went on leave), I bought four pies from Amici for OHA's family. Since I was craving for chicken fingers, I told OHA that I wanted to go to Friday's and that we should just call Amici to place our order. I told him that we could pick up the pies on our way home. He agreed (thank God) so here's what we ordered: -Cajun chicken fingers (mine)
-Classic cheeseburger (OHA's)
After our meal, we went to Amici to pick up the order. I got two Tutta Carne pies, one Quattro Formaggi pie, and one Prosciutto e Funghi pie. Oh and macapuno gelato. Since I was too lazy to take pictures of the pies individually, I asked OHA to just "pose" with the boxes :)
Whew! That's how I celebrated my 25th birthday--with a lot of food :) I wasn't able to come up with something to make my birthday unique, but my 5-day celebration more than makes up for my lack of planning skills.
I'm very happy, though, that my OHA was there with me on all the mini-celebrations. That's really what made my birthday happy.
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