On Having a Superfly Boyfriend

As I've frequently blathered lately, my birthday was Friday, March 24. This year's birthday was probably the greatest so far, and that's all thanks to Superfly. He continually surprised and amazed me, and I didn't stop grinning until Saturday afternoon.

It all started two weeks ago, when he received his new IPod. Bursting with the stress of keeping a secret, he revealed he'd ordered me one, too, and couldn't wait until my birthday to give it to me. It's hot pink, it's the most awesome gadget ever invented, and I thought that was that for birthday shenanigans.

Due to my sad childhood, I didn't have proper birthday parties. Neither did my younger sister, whose birthday is two weeks before mine. Ours often were lumped together and thoroughly devoid of party. Determined to mine the one day of the year I can claim to be All About Me, I threw parties for myself, usually of the Tiki karaoke bar variety.

That's it for backstory. Anyway, instead of elephanting around in the morning, as per usual, Superfly announced he'd taken a vacation day. Then he told me I had an appointment at the neighborhood chi-chi salon for a facial. I couldn't believe it! He went off to our gym, while I headed down to the salon.

I'll spare you the details of why I wanted a facial; suffice to say one of the side effects of my medication is acne. So my punum got rubbed and pounded and extracted and masked. My hands were encased in paraffin, new agey music played, a pretty Russian blonde massaged my shoulders and chest. It was all good.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon, then got ready for dinner. I thought we were going to our favorite pizza place, so I put on jeans and a sweatshirt. Grinning, Superfly said, "We're actually going into the city." No further information was to be beaten out of him. I changed into city clothes and we set off, taking the train to the Village.

We walked and walked, I tried to guess our destination. It was Waikiki Wally's, a fabulous Polynesian restaurant near Lucky Cheng's. I fell in love with the unabashed Tiki goodness of this place, the lovely Mai Tais, and the delicious grub. We sat near the giant Tiki fountain, which dribbled water droplets on us as we ate. I acquired both leis, plus a fresh plumeria to wear in my hair.

Next, we caught a cab uptown. No further information from my super-sneaky boyfriend. We stopped in front of a bar called Keats in midtown and went inside. Karaoke in full effect, and moments after we arrived two friends joined us, followed by more and more friends I hadn't seen in some time. I was gifted a stuffed Pug puppy that is so cute, the whole bar went "Awwwwwwwwww!" I commandeered the karaoke stage, which is my wont, and a grand time was had by all.

I squeezed him and hugged him all the way back to Brooklyn in the cab. What a fantastic boyfriend, what a keeper.

Final Word: BEST BIRTHDAY, EVER!

We're moving on now, I promise.