Thirty

Andy is officially thirty, in Thailand and in America. On his birthday (here) I had to teach my dance class and then had a performance. I had made reservations for 9:45pm at a fabulous surprise restaurant hoping we would make it there by 10:20 pm to put in an order because that's what time the kitchen closed. My performance was an hour late (how I miss having a manager AND a contract for shows) and as soon as I stepped off stage I grabbed my bag and we got into a taxi, still in costume. Well, we didn't make it. This resulted in uncontrollable tears (not by Andy) because his birthday was ruined. Ok, not exactly ruined but I felt insanely bad. I had spent the previous night baking his favorite cake and making chocolate chip AND peanut butter cookies so I am a little bit nice and do observe others' birthdays on occassion. After I admitted to myself that dinner was not going to happen we went to Witch's Tavern where many TCIS folk were celebrating other 30th birthdays. After Witch's closed we stopped for dinner at a Thai restaurant on the street. It was delicious and insanely spicy but that was barely noticed since it was approximately 4am. Notice below the others eating at this time as well. TIT! I also got him gift cards worth 10 buckets of balls at the driving range. This would be a great and thoughtful gift however Andy is permanently injured between his broken back and broken ankles. Despite the fact that I am a very selfish person I really did try to make his birthday special. We agreedthat we could properly celebrate the next day when it was his birthday in America. So, the next day we went to the Rembrandt Hotel where we were planning on eating the previous night. It is on the 26th floor and it is said to have a great view and great Indian food. I had already given Andy my alternate name to go by so I would not be connected to the frantic girl on the phone pleading for them to stay open just for us the night before. Upon arrival we saw that there was a Mexican restaurant there that had been recommended by Guy. We opted to go for Mexican and try the Indian restaurant at a later date. Senor Picos (of Los Angeles) had great ambiance with a group of Mexican musicians to entertain us. Andy wanted me to speak Spanish to them as it was a momentous occasion finding the only other Mexicans living in Bangkok. Although my Spanish comes out often when speaking to Thai people, I am not as confident to speak it to people who actually know the language. So, I have yet to make a bond with my people here in Thailand. That's not true, I know a half Mexican half Thai guy who calls me Nicolina (FYI: that is different than Nicoliana). As we were getting ready to leave, Guy and a party of 15 walked in to sit down to dinner. His wife Lek came in, saw us, literally leaped in the air and ran to hug me. She misses me as much as I miss her. I'm happy to say Sinai and Golon are still good friends of mine and were happy to share many stories of soccer games, "broken" ankles, and teachers. The food... well, it wasn't great. However, we will be back for the ambience (and to visit my peeps) for sure. The search for great Mexican food in Bangkok continues. The man kissing Andy below is Jalal (one of our quiz night team members and also a fellow Gaelic footballer)