::A Geek in Korea::

Today happens to be my wife’s birthday. We don’t make a big deal out of birthdays most of the time. A simple dinner, possibly a gift negotiated for in advance, and some time together is all we do to celebrate. Still, we need to recognize we’re doing something for the day.

Yesterday, my wife came home from a dinner party with coworkers. She had a cake and a small pendant they bought for her. She asked me, “Do you know why I got the cake?”  She thought I had forgotten her birthday, and it wasn’t even her birthday yet! A preemptive accusation of forgetfulness?

I could understand why she would have gotten that impression. We had both worked out beforehand that she was going to get her present while on vacation. She would get to choose something nice while we were visiting Europe instead of making me try to find something nice for her here. As such, she didn’t want me to go buy her something now. She wanted to pick it later.

Today we woke up to rain. I had to go into work extra early to help choose the books they’d be teaching while I was on vacation. I had to leave in a hurry, and it was raining, so my plan to purchase flowers while walking the dog was ruined.

We agreed to meet after work and go to our favorite downtown restaurant. Can it still be a romantic dinner choice if we have a point card with the restaurant? I had some handmade pizza, while she had crab risotto. Seafood is served “in shell” here, so much of the conversation during dinner was stunted while she tried to suck the crab meat out of the shell. Her opinion: “It’s delicious, but I’m never ordering this again!”

We left the restaurant, and were going to walk around for a little while, but got hit by a huge downpour. We both had umbrellas, but were getting soaked. We ran into a sticker photo boot to snap a few shots. We’ve gone to this same place three times to have pictures taken. Eventually I’ll remember to contort myself so that the camera can catch all of me in a frame. We got the pictures cut, and by the time the process was finished, the rain had died down well enough to walk around.

We headed back home via subway. My family never did anything more than a dinner and a gift for birthdays. Even though I know I’ll be getting something expensive for her in a few weeks, I wish I had the opportunity today to get her flowers or some small “thinking of you, no I didn’t forget your birthday” gift.