Saturday, January 7, 2017

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving!

If you didn't get my 13 Going On 30 reference immediately, then I'm embarrassed because that was a ridiculous title.

My birthday last week was wonderful.  I got to spend the first half with family and the second half with friends, and since I got all my sappy reflections about the matter out in my last post, I was able to just enjoy being surrounded by people I love.

Also, newsflash: 30 feels just like 29!

Family selfie after my birthday breakfast

To celebrate the big 3-0, we did a Feastly pop-up dinner in SOMA, which was way better than a restaurant because it felt homey, intimate, and relaxed, but somebody else was doing all the work.  While many friends were out of town for the holidays, others were in town for them, so I got to see a few rarer faces, like Kristen and Daniel in from NC, and Preetam in from Seattle. 


The whole affair was BYOB, and boy did we.  Lauren, in her absence, even arranged a bottle of my favorite wine, Brunello, and a bottle of champagne to be delivered to the table.  Gio brought an adorable mini bottle of dessert wine.  In fact, at the end of the meal, Chef asked me if we were in the wine industry, because we really seem to know our stuff.  Ha!  Yes, I am 30, and I officially drink nice wine. 


The dinner was yummy, even if the small plates may have been a bit too small to live up to our robust wine selection.  The feature was a raviolo with an egg yolk in the center.  Had never seen anything like it!


The whole evening we had a great time just catching up and chowing down.



Half of UCSD Suite 108


The staff of Feastly were so sweet.  They even had the whole group sing happy birthday!

After dinner, we went around the corner to Bloodhound for another drink.  I think just about everyone had a birthday hangover the next day.

When I think back on that night, what I'll remember is warmth, laughter, and simply looking around the table and feeling grateful.  If I've done something right the last 30 years, it's developing friendships with people who teach me to be better, lift me up, and remind me what's truly important.  Love to you all!