Pretty Good Year

Or, How to Celebrate a Birthday

Wake up early, but considering you have no job, anytime before noon is early. Make coffee ala Rae--French roast, French-pressed, with lots of half and half. Decide to make French toast, only to discover--once you have already made the egg/milk mixture--that all your bread is moldy. Deciding that moldy French toast is better than no French toast at all, cut off the moldy crusts and make little French toast squares. Decide whether or not you will actually tell people that you did this. Reflect that you are now twenty-four-years-old and this is where you are in your life.

Decide to dress somewhat fancy in your favorite jeans, a white Oxford shirt, and a skinny pink tie. You will feel fantastic all day. Take the bus to Capitol Hill, and treat yourself to a weekday matinee showing of The Kids Are All Right at The Egyptian. Try and decide whether you would prefer to be in a lesbian marriage with Annette Bening or Julianne Moore. Realize that this is a moot point especially considering how hot Mark Ruffalo looks.

Take the bus down to the waterfront. Listen to your favorite Tori Amos songs while reading The Stranger (the Seattle weekly paper, not that absurd and nihilistic novel by Camus, L'Etranger). Listen to Ellen singing "Happy Birthday" on your voicemail which you will save forever. Meet Lillian outside Elliott's Oyster House on Pier 56, generally recognized as one of Seattle's best for seafood. Try a raw oyster on the half-shell--note that servers will eye you strangely if you order a single oyster. Reflect that Gilbert Le Coze once remarked that beef "is not an exciting food. But a wild thing swimming in the water--now that's passionnant!" Like a good white wine, an oyster can be racy and minerally. Promptly order a half-dozen more. Enjoy with a new old-fashioned cocktail (thanks Lillian!). As an oyster neophyte, the server who eyed you so strangely will bring you two more different oysters, on the house, so you can taste the oyster terroir (or whatever the marine equivalent of terroir is). The best part is since it's happy hour, you ate seven oysters (plus two more for free) for a mere $3.50.

Head to the Seattle Public Library with Lillian to kill time and pick up holds. While there you might as well pick up some books for Nancy Pearl's genre class in the fall including The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (traditional mystery) and Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (traditional Western). Lillian will also lend you her copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (thrillers and crime). At the library you will also notice a free copy of V for Vendetta which apparently is even more free than other books at the library. You don't even have to check it out and you can return it (on the honor system) whenever you are pleased to finish reading it. Head to a Seattle's Best Coffee, which happen to be surprisingly rare in Seattle (though they really do have the best coffee), to wait for Maggie to finish work and join you.

Once Maggie has arrived, take the bus to West Seattle, a somewhat isolated neighborhood as it juts out awkwardly to the west from Seattle's preferred North-South diamond grid. Decide that it reminds you favorably of Ballard. Eat at Luna Park Cafe, all that remains of the amusement park that was once the Coney Island of the West. Enjoy a classic clubhouse sandwich with a chocolate Oreo milkshake (thanks Maggie!). Stuffed with oysters and french fries, make your way to Bakery Nouveau only to discover it has closed early due to maintenance or some other such nonsense.

Repair to Lillian's apartment and unapologetically stare at her bookcases. Even though you are fuller than full and cannot possibly eat the cupcake Maggie has so generously bought from Cupcake Royale, you can enjoy a small portion of the richest dark chocolate sorbet Lillian has procured over a pleasant conversation about literature and history and school and travel. Maggie and Lillian will then present you with gifts because they are generous to a fault. Lillian, who does book arts, has made you your very own hand-sewn notebook with deckled edges and embossed with your initials. Maggie gives you a gift certificate to Teahouse Kuan Yin--our favorite teahouse. Return home with a bag full of books and food, and discover what kind of mess has been made to your Facebook page.

Thank you to everyone who wished me well via Facebook, text message, card, or phone call. You made my day special. And to borrow from the end of Angels in America (which is grand and sincere and cheesy and totally appropriate): "Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you: More Life."