Operation Surprise!

For the first time in over a decade together, I successfully surprised Nicolas! Admittedly, I hadn't necessarily been trying beforehand. Nonetheless, I—we—pulled it off without a hitch. After Nicolas had rejected all my suggestions for bigger birthday plans, he'd agreed to go to his favorite pasta place, Passione Emporio, an unassuming Italian restaurant in an industrial part of southwest Berkeley. Upon bemoaning to Tatiana my inability to do anything more special for his birthday, she hatched a plan. What if our whole extended Bridgewater crew—our family here in California—made a surprise appearance at the dinner? One quick group chat later and the plan was on. I made the reservation and Nico was none the wiser of the headcount.

Despite us walking past the window revealing all our friends, and even walking past a friend awkwardly hiding her face at the register as we entered the restaurant, Nicolas did not suspect a thing. Our crew erupted in a cheer of "surprise!" that filled the room, and surprised he was. Although, being Nico, there wasn't really much of a reaction. He immediately went into hanging-with-friends mode as though this had been the plan all along.

Surprise! Nico's unexpected birthday party. 

The years of chugging away and connecting with humans along our journey has really gotten us a lovely and supportive community. Sometimes it feels scary to imagine leaving it all in a few years to start fresh again. But that's not a today problem. Today, there aren't really any problems in our little universe—a weird thing to acknowledge when it feels like the world around us is burning. As guilty as I feel admitting it, for us, these are the good times.