How I spent my 37th (😮‍💨) birthday

Flowers from beginning to end.

Holidays can be emotional landmines in Taiwan, as I learned over our first Thanksgiving. As much as I can tell myself that each is just another day on the calendar, the knowledge (and social-media imagery) of people I love celebrating together, in person, without me, is likely to induce some glum. Birthdays can be the same, as there’s only one person in this entire hemisphere who might recognize the day. Or so I let myself believe, until 9:30am on Tuesday, when our part-time nanny—who holds my child, my career, my marriage, and my sanity in her precious hands— rang the doorbell on her day off to present me a spectacular baby-pink orchid.

From there, my husband labored over bacon, egg, and cheese on a Costco bagel, smeared with an aioli he made so the sandwich resembled the one served in our old Brooklyn neighborhood. He then took the baby for the afternoon so I could get a $10 head massage and blow-dry, perhaps my #1 favorite thing about Taiwan if I’m deeply honest (after the national healthcare, general safety, social kindness, majestic landscapes, scallion pancakes with eggs and spicy sauce, yada yada). We went to dinner at Frassi, an immaculate Italian restaurant with a tasting menu that involved two rounds of pasta, five servings of bread, and three desserts. I share a birthday with the chef, who knew as such and surprised me with a bouquet of flowers and a perfect tiny chocolate cake while the staff and fellow guests sang to me. We came home and my husband gave me the last blooms of the day: earrings I’d quietly demanded in the shape of little silver lotus flowers, studded at the center with pearls.

Snapshot: The kind gentleman dining next to us at Frassi captured and shared some cute pics. Yes, the eyes are closed and we kind of look like we’re in a credit card ad, but I see my happiness, and the dimple that’s replicated in my son’s cheek.