December 14, 2008, 7am

Happy birthday, me!

Thank you, Mommy & Deddy, for conceiving me! How un-momentous birthdays can be. I'm in a robe, sitting at the kitchen table with a to-do checklist beside me...the sky is getting light outside, and I can hear crows shouting incessantly at each other; in the background is the steady hum of the 405 freeway. A birthday is just another day. I've sensed that in Chinese culture, they're no biggie, unless you turn 100 days, 80, or 90 years old. Every day is someone's birthday. How cool & how common is that?

Last year, Robby planned the best birthday party for me ever. It started on Friday night, when Robby showed up at my sister's for dinner. He had left Los Angeles 6 hours before he said he would; I expected him to arrive in the middle of the night.

Then, he planned a surprise morning tour of the Baylands in Palo Alto, and my sisters and cousin showed up. A volunteer guide took us on a walk around the bird reserve and we watched all sorts of them hanging out and looking for food. Then we had dim sum nearby at Ming's Restaurant and took a walk on the Dish, a 3.5-mile loop on Stanford campus. After an afternoon nap, we headed out to Three Seasons for dinner with mostly Robby's friends (because I have so few friends and they all live somewhere else - Robby teases me and likes to say that I have no friends). We ate a sumptuous meal: sea bass, shaking beef, caramelized grilled shrimp, spring rolls with mango and duck. Mmmmm. Sure, Three Seasons is overpriced, but tasty! Then we headed to the place where Robby and I had our first "date": Molly Magee's in Mountain View. I put quotation marks around "date" because I didn't know we were on a day and Robby did. When it comes to blossoming romance, I'm always clueless and one step behind.

So, my 30th birthday was a day-and-a-half-long celebration, and I told Robby that he never need to plan anything else as elaborate as that for another 10 years!