Celebrating Himself v. 2011: Planning
Noting that his birthday fell on a Saturday this year, I figured I would have much more flexibility in my own schedule for arranging something special. Knowing, however, that Saturday is also 'prime time' for community events in ALL of our various communities, my planning for Significant Birthday 2011 started by checking the calendar, to see whether there were events which might impact or influence my choices for the evening. Not seeing anything to preclude some of the things I had in mind, I started contacting co-conspirators, and laying my plans.
I decided my plans would again include dinner with friends, but his birthday's falling on a Saturday meant I would not be repeating a formal leather dinner in our local dungeon. The past five years had also taught me a lot more about my partner's social preferences, and I realize that the people I would enjoy inviting for dinner wouldn't entirely be the same people HE would invite to dinner - close, but not quite the same. While he enjoyed the company present at his previous birthday dinner, some of them were there because they were people I wanted to invite, rather than people who were particularly important to him. This time, I thought more about who he would want to have there, and it made for a different group of invitees.
Though we would not be eating at SF Citadel this time, I did plan to go there after dinner, for Part 2 of the Birthday Surprise, so finding a suitable restaurant which was within reasonable striking distance from SF Citadel would be best. Because our diet has changed so significantly, I was initially stymied in my efforts to find a restaurant which was (1) affordable for all concerned, yet (2) provided a nice dinner which would (3) accommodate our low-fat vegan dietary needs, while also (4) providing an attractive selection of dishes for the other diners, including (5) someone who was gluten free -- oh, and on top of all that, it should be (6) somewhere he's never been before, because he is particularly desirous of novelty.
I finally decided on Source, located on Division Street, in San Francisco. It is new to us, it has vegetarian/vegan AND gluten free options, it is close enough to SF Citadel, and it is affordable. My only concern was that our guests would consider some aspects of the restaurant a bit too odd (e.g., they advertise 'elixirs' which contain crystal/gemstone 'essences' for balancing the chakras). And there are no beers, wines, or cocktails, which some might think an inexcusable omission for truly fine dining.
With the selection of the restaurant decided, I turned my thoughts to the details of Birthday Surprise, Part 2, which would take place at SF Citadel. In the past, when there have been SF Citadel initiated birthday celebrations, they have ordered decorated sheet cakes, large enough to feed all the attendees at the party, often with cake to spare. These cakes are nowhere close to being low-fat, low glycemic load and/or vegan. Plus, when I contacted Phil and August about having a birthday celebration, they didn't say anything about ordering a cake -- which I thought a little bit odd, until I found out that they were going to be on their post-Folsom vacation that week. I decided to order some cupcake minis from Cups and Cakes Bakery, a pervert-owned shop just down 9th Street from the dungeon.
This was when the logistics of keeping everything a surprise started becoming iffy. The bakery was open until 7:00 PM, so I needed a way to pick up the cupcakes and get them to the dungeon without tipping my hand. Plus, I wasn't entirely sure when we would be coming into the City.
See, there was this ritual we had committed to doing for a couple we know, originally scheduled for Tuesday, September 20th. Right about the time I was getting ready to start secretly contacting the birthday dinner guests, I found out that the ritual was going to have to be postponed, and not only that, but it looked like the issues which caused the postponement might mean it would have to occur sometime during the afternoon of Saturday, October 1st.
Bugger.
I put off sending out invitations, and started piecing together a set of alternative options, depending on what happened with the ritual. I also started trying to figure out how to make the dungeon celebration especially meaningful for him.
The answer came to me the weekend before, as we were discussing plans for Folsom Weekend. One of the things he enjoys about Folsom Street Fair is working as one of the tops for the Janus Charity Spanking and Flogging Booth. It gives him a once-a-year opportunity to relive the randomness of the kind of pick-up play he used to enjoy weekly at Bondage-a-Go-Go, when he was still in what he calls his "Cruising/Hunting Stage".
I decided I would try to give him another taste of that at SF Citadel. Instead of simply interrupting an otherwise normal dungeon evening to sing "Happy Birthday" and eat cake, I decided to 'pimp him out', arranging for him to give other people his birthday spankings. This part of my plan almost got deep-sixed after an unfortunate interaction at the Janus Booth, but in the week following Folsom, I decided to set my hurts aside, and go ahead, as planned. I quietly sent out information via email and FetLife, alerting some of the more probable party attendees to my plans for the evening. I also had confirmation that the ritual had been postponed (yet again), so I was able to proceed with the dinner invitations.
Somehow, though, I kept feeling like this celebration was missing that particular something which would make it special. And then, I remembered the wistfulness in his voice as he mentioned an event happening that night during one of our "calendaring" sessions sometime ago.
Suddenly, I knew what I needed to do.
I decided my plans would again include dinner with friends, but his birthday's falling on a Saturday meant I would not be repeating a formal leather dinner in our local dungeon. The past five years had also taught me a lot more about my partner's social preferences, and I realize that the people I would enjoy inviting for dinner wouldn't entirely be the same people HE would invite to dinner - close, but not quite the same. While he enjoyed the company present at his previous birthday dinner, some of them were there because they were people I wanted to invite, rather than people who were particularly important to him. This time, I thought more about who he would want to have there, and it made for a different group of invitees.
Though we would not be eating at SF Citadel this time, I did plan to go there after dinner, for Part 2 of the Birthday Surprise, so finding a suitable restaurant which was within reasonable striking distance from SF Citadel would be best. Because our diet has changed so significantly, I was initially stymied in my efforts to find a restaurant which was (1) affordable for all concerned, yet (2) provided a nice dinner which would (3) accommodate our low-fat vegan dietary needs, while also (4) providing an attractive selection of dishes for the other diners, including (5) someone who was gluten free -- oh, and on top of all that, it should be (6) somewhere he's never been before, because he is particularly desirous of novelty.
I finally decided on Source, located on Division Street, in San Francisco. It is new to us, it has vegetarian/vegan AND gluten free options, it is close enough to SF Citadel, and it is affordable. My only concern was that our guests would consider some aspects of the restaurant a bit too odd (e.g., they advertise 'elixirs' which contain crystal/gemstone 'essences' for balancing the chakras). And there are no beers, wines, or cocktails, which some might think an inexcusable omission for truly fine dining.
With the selection of the restaurant decided, I turned my thoughts to the details of Birthday Surprise, Part 2, which would take place at SF Citadel. In the past, when there have been SF Citadel initiated birthday celebrations, they have ordered decorated sheet cakes, large enough to feed all the attendees at the party, often with cake to spare. These cakes are nowhere close to being low-fat, low glycemic load and/or vegan. Plus, when I contacted Phil and August about having a birthday celebration, they didn't say anything about ordering a cake -- which I thought a little bit odd, until I found out that they were going to be on their post-Folsom vacation that week. I decided to order some cupcake minis from Cups and Cakes Bakery, a pervert-owned shop just down 9th Street from the dungeon.
This was when the logistics of keeping everything a surprise started becoming iffy. The bakery was open until 7:00 PM, so I needed a way to pick up the cupcakes and get them to the dungeon without tipping my hand. Plus, I wasn't entirely sure when we would be coming into the City.
See, there was this ritual we had committed to doing for a couple we know, originally scheduled for Tuesday, September 20th. Right about the time I was getting ready to start secretly contacting the birthday dinner guests, I found out that the ritual was going to have to be postponed, and not only that, but it looked like the issues which caused the postponement might mean it would have to occur sometime during the afternoon of Saturday, October 1st.
Bugger.
I put off sending out invitations, and started piecing together a set of alternative options, depending on what happened with the ritual. I also started trying to figure out how to make the dungeon celebration especially meaningful for him.
The answer came to me the weekend before, as we were discussing plans for Folsom Weekend. One of the things he enjoys about Folsom Street Fair is working as one of the tops for the Janus Charity Spanking and Flogging Booth. It gives him a once-a-year opportunity to relive the randomness of the kind of pick-up play he used to enjoy weekly at Bondage-a-Go-Go, when he was still in what he calls his "Cruising/Hunting Stage".
I decided I would try to give him another taste of that at SF Citadel. Instead of simply interrupting an otherwise normal dungeon evening to sing "Happy Birthday" and eat cake, I decided to 'pimp him out', arranging for him to give other people his birthday spankings. This part of my plan almost got deep-sixed after an unfortunate interaction at the Janus Booth, but in the week following Folsom, I decided to set my hurts aside, and go ahead, as planned. I quietly sent out information via email and FetLife, alerting some of the more probable party attendees to my plans for the evening. I also had confirmation that the ritual had been postponed (yet again), so I was able to proceed with the dinner invitations.
Somehow, though, I kept feeling like this celebration was missing that particular something which would make it special. And then, I remembered the wistfulness in his voice as he mentioned an event happening that night during one of our "calendaring" sessions sometime ago.
Suddenly, I knew what I needed to do.