Surprise, surprise, surprise
My January birthday is problematic because the weather is
sometimes inclement, and we can’t get out.
On my 40th Birthday in 2020, for example, we had a 21”
snowfall and ice event that shut down the city for weeks. My party was postponed, indefinitely. This year I turned 66 and the biggest snow/sleet/ice
event nationwide was predicted to arrive two days after my Birthday. It covered 14 states and we fortunately did
not get the brunt of it this time. I did,
indeed, get to celebrate my Birthday in good fashion days before the storm. The evening before my Birthday was an annual
dinner with two of my closest friends who also have January birthdays. We had first planned a lunch, then it evolved
into a dinner and the decision of where to eat was in question. It was narrowed down to two and I chose the
local restaurant in Cary that afternoon.
In the meantime, my son Ted was planning a dinner for the
next night on my Birthday. He had told
me to be ready at 5pm and dress nicely.
He would not, however, tell me where we were going and who would be
there. I desperately begged him to not
make it a surprise, but he insisted I wait and see. I get a lot of anxiety in not knowing the
specifics of a particular event in advance.
Yet I was forced to be patient.
On the night of the girls’ dinner, I called Ted as I was
driving to tell him I was going out to dinner at Lucky 32 with the girls. A long pause and silence ensued. He had put the phone on mute to express his
surprise to his wife. That restaurant
was indeed the very same one he had reservations for the following night. How bizarre.
Of all the hundreds of choices in the area to eat, we had chosen the
same one. Now he was surprised and I was
confused. He told me then that he was
going to pivot and make other arrangements for my Birthday. He did, at least, then tell me who was going
to join us. I was having dinner with my
three sons. Yet, the new reservations he
made were still a complete surprise, again at his persistence.
I immediately went with my “I told you so”, and how the
surprise was on him. If he had let me in
on his surprise, I would not have chosen Lucky 32 as my girls’ dinner date. He said to go and enjoy myself and no
worries. I did just that. We had a most delicious meal with free
desserts topped with lighted candles.
The next evening, Ted picked me up and we headed over to
Thomas’ house nearby. We went in to visit
Danielle and Nellie. At some point, they
leisurely said it was time to leave. Thomas
drove and the traffic was insane! It was
bumper to bumper on the interstate. There
were red taillights as far as I could see.
This just heightened my anxiety.
As we ventured along, I began to guess that we were going to downtown
Raleigh. In fact, we did make it to our
destination, a restaurant named Birdies located on Fayetteville St in downtown
Raleigh. I don’t get to Raleigh much,
especially at night. Joshua, who lives
in North Raleigh, was there to meet us.
We had a wonderful dinner at a place none of us had been to before except
Thomas. The starters were fabulous. We had pull-apart bread with a scallion butter,
a flatbread with hot honey sauce, and non-alcoholic bloody Mary deviled eggs. I had a shaved Brussels & Quinoa salad
that included dried apricots, baby arugula, roasted almonds, local goat cheese
and honey vinaigrette. It was one of the
most unique and tasty salads I’ve ever had.
I was also given a choice of free dessert. I chose a slice of chocolate cake, but had to
take it to go, as I was too full. It was
also one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.
To say the least, this 66th Birthday celebration was one for
the most memorable. I was accompanied to
dinner by three handsome young men whom I am very proud to call my sons! It was full of surprises, not all of them on
me!
Tammy Harvey
1/27/2026
