Belated Birthday

Dearest Rachel –

Like me, Daniel has come to grips with the fact that his actual birthday doesn’t revolve around him, much as we all would wish otherwise about our own. However, as long as he’s been willing to defer it to a more opportune day, I still want to make sure that he gets a chance to celebrate it properly at some point.

And indeed, for the first time in what seems like ages (but really hasn’t been but a couple of months – but oh, all the things that have happened in those couple of months!), we finally managed to get the six of us together to do so. There were a few moments in which I was tempted to ask another person to join us, as she made it clear to me that she wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing a meal with just me (at least at this point – and how do you get to that point but to start in a larger group?), but yesterday wasn’t about me, it was about Daniel, and her sudden presence amongst our group would be so random as to make no sense to anyone but me. That said, it turned out to be a moot point, as she only appeared to have been working the doors on Saturday; the idea didn’t cross my mind until Sunday morning, and with her not being there that day, that closed that door. It was probably just as well.

That having been said, after last week’s slow unraveling, I took the occasional moment to throw a few lines into the group chat when I could to make sure that everyone was still up for it; didn’t really want the day to fall apart like last time. Neither did anyone else, though (despite some early concerns about the clouds possibly breaking into thunderstorms in the days leading up to yesterday); really, all that needed to be agreed upon was a time. Ironically, it was my situation that forced everyone to wait until a quarter after one, but that just allowed the girls – all of whom would be coming from further away – a little more time to get there. Meanwhile, Logan decided that he would walk to the place and meet us there; a reasonable idea, as it’s only about two miles, and he could use the exercise. Besides, I imagine it might just as easily help him to work up an appetite.

Meanwhile, Daniel and I were dealing with another passing period irony this week; this time, rather than having to deal with a fire alarm, he was on his way out after the second service, only for both of us to run into Mom showing up for the third service.  It’s been six months, or so she reckons, since she’s been physically at church all right thanks to one thing or another having to do with Dad’s situation.  Daniel make a point of taking a note of this; Presumably, going forward, he’ll be showing up at the third service to be with her. However, for now, he was able to go home and get himself prepared for me to get home and pick him up to take him to the restaurant after I finished working the third service. And as much as I should probably tell you about that – between the four services, I took enough in the way of notes – I confess to having my mind on how things were going to go for his birthday party.

I’m pretty sure I’ve told you about this place; it’s not quite the same as Asian Tokyo in terms of vibes, but it does follow the same lines in terms of operation. Granted, the touchpad ordering system takes a little getting used to, especially when you’re passing it around between six people, but we’ve managed before, and things worked out just fine yesterday as well.

I should mention that there were no gifts exchanged; for all that Daniel (and, let’s face it, anyone) wants at least something made of their special day, he’s stated time and again that there’s really nothing much that he actually wants anymore – at least, nothing that he’s not as capable (if not more so) of getting for himself than anyone there at the table. He and I may not be particularly social people, but we’ve learned that having people present is present enough, especially after last week.

I even got a nice ‘gift’ of sorts from Erin, insofar as she offered to pay for her part, as she always does, but after two refusals on my part, she dropped the subject entirely. We’ve stopped fighting about this, and the offers are becoming purely perfunctory. You would have been so proud of her for finally learning to accept the hospitality graciously (although for all I know, she could have slipped the equivalent amount to Daniel as a birthday present without my knowledge, as a sop to her conscience. Which, under the circumstances, would have been fine).

We were there past closing time, after ordering perhaps too much in the way of dessert before the kitchen closed – for one thing, the mochi coating on their ice cream allows it to resist melting for a certain length of time, but it’s not indefinite. By the time Daniel surrendered the last few sushi rolls (which we packed away in a couple of takeout ice cream cups), his dessert was basically a mango slurry covering the plate. It still tasted okay, according to him, but it was certainly questionable in texture.

At one of the girls’ suggestion, we took a walk around the Walmart and what used to be the Sam’s Club; we’re of the understanding that the latter is going to be an Asian-themed shopping and entertainment center. It’s not meant to compete, exactly, with Mitsuwa or Joong Boo (out by where the old Toys-R-Us used to be, remember?), but it appears to be quite literally bridging the gap between them, at least from a geographic perspective, and as far as Daniel and I are concerned, it can’t arrive soon enough. Unfortunately, it’s not here yet; at the rate construction goes around here, we may wind up doing another circuit around Japan before it’s ready. But it might be nice to come back to, at some point.

Speaking of coming back, everybody eventually came back to the house afterwards, although not for as long as any of us boys would have liked, I think. Logan had queued up some anime for us all to watch (I keep going on about Yorimoi, and now we’ve gotten Kerstin’s interest piqued about Freiren, given all the meaningful German names given to the characters in that show), but Ellen had a fair number of work stories to tell, and that took up most of the time before Erin realized she had to meet her friend yet, and needed to catch the next train at least halfway downtown. I do hope she made it before the weather really opened up; I know that by morning, it was clear that we’d gotten dumped on.

But that’s a separate story entirely. For now, it’s enough that Daniel had his birthday, and seems to have enjoyed it. Keep an eye on him, though, and wish him well, honey; I still say he’ll need it as much as I always do.