Sarah is amazing.  She organized the most incredible birthday extravaganza that anyone could hope for.  And it was a complete and total surprise.

My birthday is the 21st and I had talked to Sarah months ago about not doing anything big — I couldn’t imagine organizing a big birthday party on top of everything else we’re doing this spring.  At some point she suggested we could do a barbecue some time in May, after my thesis is done and the house is on the market.  Sounded like a great plan, and I proceeded with life, forgetting about my birthday entirely.

Then on Monday I got an innocuous email from my brother, Anthony, who was in town for work (he comes for a week of meetings every few months):

Hey guys,

I'm in town this week until Sunday. I thought it would
be cool to meet up on Saturday if any of you are free.
Maybe lunch and a movie? Clash of the Titans might be
fun.... What do you think?

-Anthony

Now that I have reread it, it is a bit suspicious (especially if you know Anthony well).  But at the time, I just thought, “cool, glad Anthony’s in town for a few extra days, I’d love to go see a bad movie!”

The week was the usual maelstrom of school, thesis writing, house prepping, cover letter writing, and parenting, so it all went by in a blur.  But I wasn’t suspicious at all.

Saturday morning I meet up with Anthony, Tyler and Ed, and we start walking to the farmer’s market where we were going to have lunch and then catch the flick at the Grand Lake theater across the street.  As we near the farmer’s market, Anthony turns to me and says, “I’m sorry, Andrew, but we are not going to see Clash of the Titans.”  He hands me a blue card:

Inside the card was a poetic introduction followed by the first clue:

The solution, of course, is Cancun in Berkeley, which not only has my favorite burrito but is also a place of Great Significance (to me, anyway).  Cassidy’s sister, Margot, recommended the place to me before I moved to Oakland.  When Kevin Muñoz and I arrived in 1996, we started meeting there for lunch every Wednesday, continuing the weekly lunch tradition we had had at the Oberlin computing center.  Over the years, it became a rendezvous for anyone who was available at lunch time on Wednesdays… sometimes just a few of us, sometimes a dozen or more.

In short, it was the perfect first stop on my birthday hunt.

I won’t post all the clues here, but let’s just say that Sarah did her research, including many places near and dear to my heart over the fourteen years I’ve lived here.  Highlights included the grimy piano bar where Sarah and I had our first date (the clue had blown off into a puddle of urine), and the spot in the Oakland Rose Garden where we became engaged (the clue was, fortunately, still tacked to the tree next to which I nervously issued my proposal).

But wait, as brilliant and surprising as this whole memory hunt was, it was only a distraction from the real surprise.  Unbeknownst to me, Sarah had been planning this whole thing for months and had invited people from all aspects of my life to a surprise party in the back yard of the house.  They had gathered there at 3:30, expecting my arrival around 4.  Guests included friends from high school, college, my teaching program, the middle school I work at, and Griffin’s birthing group!

While we were on our hunt, they gathered and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  In my ignorance, I was taking my sweet time working my way through the hunt.  (I thought this was pretty much the best birthday ever, so I wanted to savor it!)  In order to get some exercise, I even decided to walk between a number of the final clues!  Sarah and my guides engaged in some frantic behind-the-scenes text messaging to remove a stop or two from the hunt, so I eventually got the final clue that led us to the back yard.

As I came around the corner, expecting to see Sarah and Griffin and maybe Dave and Nancy (probably working hard on the garden in preparation for our upcoming open house), I was greeted by a rousing “SURPRISE!” from a crowd of guests, most of whom I haven’t seen in months!

It was a fantastic way to end a fantastic day.  I am in awe of Sarah… pulling this off in a year with nothing going on would have been a major feat.  But this spring has been INSANE.  It boggles my mind.  (I am not the only one who feels this way either… the most common things I heard from the guests, besides birthday greetings, were compliments for Sarah’s masterful planning.)

The day was also a reminder of what we are leaving behind with this upcoming move.  Seeing everybody at the party brought home to me the amazing community we have here.  It’s a hard thing, moving somewhere new.  I appreciate so much that Sarah recognizes the roots I’ve put down here, and honored that connection with this beautiful celebration.  It was, truly, a super duper birthday.