"For the Giver, for the gifts, praise, praise, praise!"
Things which are made of win:
* One of my best friends calling me on my way to work to wish me a happy birthday.
* antheia's birthday message to me :)
* Lorraine sent me a birthday card which has a sullen looking white fluffy cat (wearing a tiara) on the front, and on the inside it says, "I like you. (And I'm finicky!) Happy Birthday"
* A certain someone actually remembering my birthday.
I also got assorted Facebook/e-mail/LJ messages, and my mommy sent me a birthday e-mail to both my personal and my work e-mail addresses :) And MaryAlice remembered this morning before she got in to work and sent me a birthday e-mail. Also, hee, a text message from Emma! (You're making this a tradition, aren't you?)
*
We always go to Pho Pasteur Le's (usually at my request), so I decided we should go somewhere else for a change. I had Bombay Club in mind since it's one of the places in Harvard Square I haven't yet been to (and comes highly recommended by some of the faculty), forgetting that I'd actually just been for Indian on Friday. Anyway, the food was pretty good.
While we were eating, Eric commented that he doesn't really like Indian food much, doesn't really like the taste of the spices they use (he got rice and some kind of chicken), so I asked, "So why'd you come have lunch with us if you don't like Indian?" (Bear in mind, he dislikes sitting still for long periods of time, so he's taken to running errands during lunchtime -- or working through lunch so as to leave early, particularly on days when he's dead from boredom -- rather than eating with us like every other day.) He replied, in this tone like I had just asked the stupidest question ever, "Because it was your birthday." Aww.
They add an 18% gratuity for parties of 5 or more (we were 5), which isn't a huge surprise (though I'm used to it being 6 or more), but we looked at the menu and at the buffet and all ultimately opted for the buffet. Granted, people come and take away your used dishes and bring you more water, and ask if you'd like coffee or anything, but it still felt a little weird.
Ranjan lives in Davis Square, too, so I asked him what his favorite Indian restaurant in the area is, and he far and away recommended Punjab Cafe in Arlington. kurukami, I thought I'd pass that on :)
There's a Malaysian place (Rendang) across from Bombay Club, which we may try out for MaryAlice's birthday.
***
In ASL class tonight we learned lots of prepositions and verbs and direction words and suchlike. I jotted down most of the words but mostly despaired of actually writing down hints of any of the actual sign-actions. For example, "school" and "paper" are similar, but I feel like we learned another sign tonight that also looked very similar to that one. A lot of the signs (especially direction type words) feel intuitive, but grasping the subtleties of how the similar ones are different from each other feels a bit overwhelming.
We learned "come" and I giggled and looked at Will and he was like, "NO." But then we had the midway break and he was all, "Go, ask him your question." I explained that no, I already knew how to sign it, and explained about Sunday. I did ask how to say "birthday," though.
In the parking lot after class, Will was chatting with Maura, and she was talking about how it's her birthday on Wednesday (she turns 23) and I mentioned that it's my birthday today, and Will turns to me and says, "WHAT?" I honestly had thought he had been present for the conversation at Sunday dinner, but apparently not.
In other news, Lindsay was saying that some of the words we learned today are real signs that mean something distinctly different in NZSL -- our word "cafe" means "cousin" in NZSL, and even more terrifically, our sign for "boss" is NZSL for "taking your dog out for a pee." Oh, and apparently the Name Sign she was given is very close to the ASL sign for "transgender."
* One of my best friends calling me on my way to work to wish me a happy birthday.
* antheia's birthday message to me :)
* Lorraine sent me a birthday card which has a sullen looking white fluffy cat (wearing a tiara) on the front, and on the inside it says, "I like you. (And I'm finicky!) Happy Birthday"
* A certain someone actually remembering my birthday.
I also got assorted Facebook/e-mail/LJ messages, and my mommy sent me a birthday e-mail to both my personal and my work e-mail addresses :) And MaryAlice remembered this morning before she got in to work and sent me a birthday e-mail. Also, hee, a text message from Emma! (You're making this a tradition, aren't you?)
*
We always go to Pho Pasteur Le's (usually at my request), so I decided we should go somewhere else for a change. I had Bombay Club in mind since it's one of the places in Harvard Square I haven't yet been to (and comes highly recommended by some of the faculty), forgetting that I'd actually just been for Indian on Friday. Anyway, the food was pretty good.
While we were eating, Eric commented that he doesn't really like Indian food much, doesn't really like the taste of the spices they use (he got rice and some kind of chicken), so I asked, "So why'd you come have lunch with us if you don't like Indian?" (Bear in mind, he dislikes sitting still for long periods of time, so he's taken to running errands during lunchtime -- or working through lunch so as to leave early, particularly on days when he's dead from boredom -- rather than eating with us like every other day.) He replied, in this tone like I had just asked the stupidest question ever, "Because it was your birthday." Aww.
They add an 18% gratuity for parties of 5 or more (we were 5), which isn't a huge surprise (though I'm used to it being 6 or more), but we looked at the menu and at the buffet and all ultimately opted for the buffet. Granted, people come and take away your used dishes and bring you more water, and ask if you'd like coffee or anything, but it still felt a little weird.
Ranjan lives in Davis Square, too, so I asked him what his favorite Indian restaurant in the area is, and he far and away recommended Punjab Cafe in Arlington. kurukami, I thought I'd pass that on :)
There's a Malaysian place (Rendang) across from Bombay Club, which we may try out for MaryAlice's birthday.
***
In ASL class tonight we learned lots of prepositions and verbs and direction words and suchlike. I jotted down most of the words but mostly despaired of actually writing down hints of any of the actual sign-actions. For example, "school" and "paper" are similar, but I feel like we learned another sign tonight that also looked very similar to that one. A lot of the signs (especially direction type words) feel intuitive, but grasping the subtleties of how the similar ones are different from each other feels a bit overwhelming.
We learned "come" and I giggled and looked at Will and he was like, "NO." But then we had the midway break and he was all, "Go, ask him your question." I explained that no, I already knew how to sign it, and explained about Sunday. I did ask how to say "birthday," though.
In the parking lot after class, Will was chatting with Maura, and she was talking about how it's her birthday on Wednesday (she turns 23) and I mentioned that it's my birthday today, and Will turns to me and says, "WHAT?" I honestly had thought he had been present for the conversation at Sunday dinner, but apparently not.
In other news, Lindsay was saying that some of the words we learned today are real signs that mean something distinctly different in NZSL -- our word "cafe" means "cousin" in NZSL, and even more terrifically, our sign for "boss" is NZSL for "taking your dog out for a pee." Oh, and apparently the Name Sign she was given is very close to the ASL sign for "transgender."