Birthday Surprises!

Last Tuesday was my (gulp!) 41st birthday! The week passed by in a flash! Steve had "booked" me for Monday and Tuesday nights, but wouldn't tell me what we were doing. On Monday, we met on the subway after work on our way to our mystery plans. He was so funny -- carrying a big bag of presents, pretending they (white & pink paper with Eiffel Towers on it!) were for his dad, saying things like "So, what should we do tonight?" and "This is the F train, right?" (It wasn't) and "Did you bring your snorkle and your spin shoes? I'm sure I told you to bring them!") We were laughing so hard that we actually missed our real stop and had to get off our train and transfer to the uptown one to get back to our stop!

B-day cake!

After we got off of the subway, he led me through the West Village (a neighborhood where I lived for 5 years, so I know it very well) and I was totally unclear about where we were going! Finally, we came to a spot called B-a-r-b-uta, which has a great chef's table in the kitchen... and where we've talked about having a party before. I had NO clue that there might be a party in the works that night... but when we got to that particular restaurant, my radar went off! The hostess led us over to another table... I spotted a few friends at the chef's table... and the jig was up!! What a great surprise!!

B-day dinner at the Chef's table

I took this from my chair -- they were right behind me!

The food and the company were fantastic. What a wonderful surprise, and I'm totally blown away by Steve being able to pull this off so well without me having the faintest idea!! How I love that guy!!

The next night, for my actual b-day surprise, he took me to the Theater District, to a very cute Italian restaurant called Be-c-c-o. I knew then (because he had to tell our waiter) that we were heading to a 7 p.m. show, and it turns out that he got tickets to R-e-latively S-p-e-aking, which is a series of 3 one-act plays, including one by Woody A-l-len. I really enjoyed it, and it was such a fun treat to get to the theater!

After dinner, we played "tourist" and sat in Times Square having a glass of wine (which you're not probably supposed to do..) :)

In my fabulous new trench coat that Steve got me for my birthday! It's exactly like the one K-a-te Mi-ddl-eton wears (love her..)!

What a great birthday it was! And once again, I got to have a birthday in my forties (!) without feeling freaked out about the 4 before that number... and it's only because of my band and because I'm able to be in this decade looking and feeling better than I did in my 30s. Thank you, band!!