St. Frances Is the Best Birthday Valet

I love sharing food. At any restaurant, whether it's encouraged or frowned upon, I'll try to eat family style. If I go out with you and we don't eat family style, I'll order something I like, but I'll spend the whole meal staring at your plate, not out of envy, but out of pure curiousity for what your food tastes like.

I'm not very good at settling.

So when St. Frances asked me where I wanted to go for dinner on my birthday, I picked the best Chinese restaurant I'd heard of: San Tung. It was perfect, enforced family style. Catalina and Scooby came, and Jessie and her new guy Ryan, along with Maya, St. F, Diego, Ash and Duncan.

One of the only things I like more than sharing food is making decisions for other people. So when St. F suggested I just look at the menu and write down 10 dishes I wanted, I nearly swooned. When she remembered my handwriting can wilt sunflowers, and offered to write it all down for me, then I knew I had the best birthday valet ever.

It's sort of an informal tradition that we didn't really start, but more less grabbed out of the social ether: you shouldn't have to plan your own birthday party. So you get a birthday valet to send out invitations and book the reservation.

Then, when we ended up at Mad Dog, St. Frances made sure I kept drinking waters and told me to go on hit on the cute girl in hipster glasses when Levi was kicked out of the bar.

She's the best birthday valet ever.