My Best Birthday

In the recent years, it has become sort of a tradition in the family to give surprise cake-cutting parties at midnight before birthday for all the family members regardless of their age. So as usual, we were coming back home tired from some shopping trip on the day before my birthday, which also happened to be a Saturday. It was later in the afternoon and everyone just wanted to get home and chill, relax. As we were getting closer to home, some of the people changed their minds and mentioned they had to pick up some random items from the shopping center close to home. I, being smarter than myself sometimes, figured it out and declared that I wasn't interested in eating ice-cream cake (ColdStone makes some awesome cakes with ice-creams and since we all love the place, it usually ends up being the default choice) tonight! You should've seen the victory smile on my face. Everyone laughed out loud at this statement... it was truly a "jab main chhotaa bacchaa tha badi sharaarat kartaa thaa, jab meri chori pakdi jaati.." kind of moment for them.

Now since I had already managed to figure out the surprise, I also announced that I would rather go to Ghirardelli Square before midnight for ice-creams and begin the celebrations there. And everyone just loved the idea. The best thing about having your birthday on Sunday is that you can have all the fun and the way YOU want it and spend the weekend doing ALL that you want without worrying about waking up early next morning!

Once we got home, we watched one of those funny movies that the family enjoys watching together. Quite frankly, I don't even remember now which one it was, probably Hulchul or Hungama, but I do remember that it being just great! Had simple Gujarati food for dinner and then we headed out to Ghirardelli around 10:30 PM. We probably got there around 11:15 or so and ordered our ice-cream sundaes and enjoyed them until after midnight. Everyone wished me happy birthday and got many hugs & kisses and it was the most wonderul start of a birthday I have ever had!


Hot fudge sundaes, chocolate chip ice cream & quake shake


Since this was right after Xmas, Ghirardelli folks had their world famous peppermint bark squares, which they usually only have it for holidays and very limited time. So I figured this was a good idea to pick these up as well while I was there to add it to my personal chocolate stash. While I was browsing around their chocolate store next to the cafe, I also found a nice looking tote bag with peppermint colors, that looked sort of like this. Filled with exciment and happiness after devouring all that fudge, chocolate and ice-cream, I was ready to buy a big bag of peppermint bark squares and the peppermint tote bag, I headed for the cashier with these two in my hand, waiting for the cashier to arrive at the register. And he did pretty soon. I placed the two items on the counter and was about to open my purse to pay for these items, and then everything went *blank* for a fraction of a second.


Hot fudge sundae with bananas



All done! :D


Next thing I realize, the cashier is coming out from behind the counter running towards me saying something like "Oh! I'm so sorry" repeatedly. For a few moments, I didn't even realize what had happened. Then I see that the the large chocolate bag, the tote bag are soaked with soapy water along with OH MY GOD! my pants AND my sweater AND my jacket! I was just standing there laughing away looking at the expression on his face and then laughing even more looking at my pants. It happens so that he had just knocked off a bucket full of soapy water from behind the cash register that another cashier had placed there a few moments ago as he was cleaning the area. The bucket happened to be on the side the customers stand and it fell off as the cashier touched the register spilling all of its contents on the counter, the floor and me! The cashier helping me just happened to be a manager or something and got super upset with the other cashier for leaving the big soap water bucket on counter. He asked another cashier who was passing by to take me to the nearest sink to get cleaned up and dried and went off to get another chocolate bag and tote bag for me. And all along, I am just standing there laughing out loud feeling so funny and amused about the whole thing. Some of the family members started getting upset and I had to cool them down.. they joined me in laughing too! :) I handed over my purse to them and went to the nearest special ice-cream sink to wash my hands and get some paper napkins. A couple of cashiers actually asked me whether it was raining this hard outside. That made me laugh out loud even more! I couldn't control it... and the look on the manager/cashier was so full of guilt I decided that it wasn't a good idea to share with him it was my birthday. ;) He apologized so many times I had to smile at him and tell him that it was completely alright. I think that made him feel more uncomfortable, but I truly enjoyed the whole experience. I was excused from paying any money for the chocolates and bag and he also asked me if I wanted to buy anything more. I said no and smiled and we wished eachother good night before I headed back to the car with family with drippy pants. Thank goodness there was a warm shawl to help me on my drive back to home. It was the funniest ride and we laughed all the way back!

The day was even more fun... it was a gorgeous winter day with lots of sunshine and I spent it enjoying time with my family!

Now would you have believed me if I told you that my best birthday ever was the one where the cashier spills a bucket full of soapy water on me? But it truly was! :D