It's my birthday, and before you leave thinking, "Oh no, how pathetic/sad this person has nobody to spend it with, I'm out of here!" that's not what this is.

I've grown into generally spending my birthday alone the last couple of years, because, for whatever reason, celebrating with people usually ends poorly. This year, I've got three weeks off, a friend dropped in for a brief lunch and watering plants, and it was a nice time. There are people I can call on tonight for a night out, there are people who love me in my life, and it is a relaxed choice to have no plans today. Next week, I could be on a plane to Seattle, New York, or Minneapolis and I'm looking forward to following my whims! That being said, I don't think I want to keep spending birthdays alone.

Ideally, by next year, I'd like to have better friends in my life. This is me looking for one of them! The thought came to mind because I've had this Filipino restaurant on my mind in San Mateo, and while I'm comfortable going alone, the portions are larger than I'm okay with, and so I started thinking about what that day would look like.

We'd probably spend a month talking about it, make a reservation, we'd bring each other a gift, because I'd think I'm a bother for locking your time in to go to a restaurant I'm scared you'll hate, then we'd have a good laugh, talk about what life was like the past year, enjoy drinks (unless we're sober) until the server says we're taking too long and are being kicked out. We'd go for a walk, finding boba or getting cookies from that shop that's really good at them, and one of us would probably mention somewhere to stare at the water or we'd drive over the San Mateo Bridge when the moon's of the right phase and I'd talk about how I always tell people it's the best bridge to drive over at night. I've got a year, so what do you think? What should we do?

Hi, I'm now some 30 year old Southeast Asian fellow, standing at 6 feet, thinking about my tentative trip next week, how I'm glad the ice cream my friend brought wasn't mint (read: frozen toothpaste), how tired I am after watering all of these plants, and how I should look for the next cool bakery popup or craft fair or boba shop to add to the map and order no pearls in my drink.