Photograph by Camille SoulayrolFor my Paris 30th birthday bash, I chose to be a drop more selective with my guest list unlike last year where I invited 15 people and told everyone that they could bring friends which turned into having over 60 people at my birthday party whom I've never met. The Happy Birthday singalong was a little strange as I had to fish through the crowd to find my friends, it also didn't help that I mistakenly bought myself trick candles and almost had an asthma attack desperately trying to blow them out. My friends knew that I had bought them by mistake and that it was funny whereas the strangers thought there was something wrong with me (in which they wouldn't have been terribly off). At one point a girl, not realizing that I was the birthday girl because of the density of the crowd told me she didn't like the music I put on, turned it off in replacement of Swedish dance. In her defense, my horrible taste in music tends to take over after a drink but it was my birthday and I was allowed to be as cheesy as I wanted to. And come on, Swedish dance music. That was her big sell? Pfft.
Saying all that, this year was whole different ballgame; mellow, more food (a cornucopia of Pink Flamingo pizzas), quality quests and I knew (almost) everyone there. Sébastien was the first one to arrive which was a pleasant change from Monsieur Flâneur who would show up to my parties three hours late and spend a good portion of the party on the phone screaming at his brother in the bedroom to have him eventually storm out because of an 'emergency'. I'm sorry, I should stop comparing but I just don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to marrying this guy. He made everything so difficult where I convinced myself that I was the crazy one for thinking his behavior wasn't normal. It feels good to finally be dating a nice guy, not a wolf in a gentleman's costume but a real nice guy.
I'm going to share a little story with you about nice guys. I had one back when I was in Los Angeles, he's now well-known illustrator but the problem was that I wasn't ready for or appreciative of the nice guy. I was 22 (an idiot) and wanted to be treated like shit by Silver Lake hipster dudes who shot videos on their Super 8s and ate at the 101. Well aforementioned nice guy illustrator married the girl he met after me, they live in the hills of Los Feliz and just had a beautiful baby girl 3 weeks ago. We're still friends now but looking back, I know that I let go of a great catch for an immature and jaded view on romance and promised myself to never do that again. Remember ladies, the chase is not love or companionship, it's just the ego wanting what it can't have.
The flowers Sébastien sent to New York would have been more than enough in terms of a birthday gift, especially a first birthday gift but he gave me a precious little power blue compact mirror with a Victorian Marie Antoinette-esque woman posing regally and a darling Camille Soulayrol navy blue polka dot postcard with detailed instructions written on the back. I was commanded to choose one of three proposed weekend getaway options once the autumn foliage starts. The choices were the sea in Normandy, the vineyards in Burgundy or the château in Loire. Can he be any more perfect? No, really...I made my choice and we'll go once I come back from cousin Anthony and Carmella's wedding in October.
Phil facilitated a contest where guests had to guess what my favorite year of my twenties were AND my favorite movie on his shelf of 40 films with choices like True Romance, Love Actually, (500) Days of Summer, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Shakespeare in Love, Date Night and Charlie Wilson's War. To my surprise and delight, Sébastien got both answers right and naturally everyone thought the contest was fixed which it was certainly not (seriously!) but he graciously he didn't accept the artwork prize because he understood why they would think that. I was just happy that he got it. Can you guess which was my favorite year AND movie out of these choices? Unfortunately, I don't have some fun blogger give away prize if you get it right, so it probably wouldn't be worth the brain power.
Phil got a dozen cupcakes which he garnished with capsules of flavored lube. While I saw the humor and practicality in it, I can tell my more conservative guests were dumbfounded by the forward suggestion. Hey, we all have different priorities, I guess.
The only word I can describe my party would be perfect. Perfect guests, perfect food and perfectly mellow. Sébastien and I were home by 1:30am where we watched 'Heathers' and shared a leftover bottle of champagne nestled on the couch. At the beginning of this 2011 crisis, I was dreading my 30th thinking that I'd be huddled in the corner of my apartment wrapped in a blanket all by myself. I was terrified of starting off a new decade self-indulging in my existential drama as I searched for the meaning and purpose of my life (how boring!) and simply felt alone. Things have really turned around in a matter or months, I've made some new friends, I have some things to look forward to, some goals to achieve and some plans to be made. Ok, 30...Let's do this!
