One of my friends- Oates approached me and volunteered to organize the birthday party for me. Since I have never had a real birthday party before, also I am not sure if my friends will be available to come to the party, I was sort of hesitating. However, I agree to have a party anyway so Oates sent out the invitation.

The party is held on Friday night at the High Line in the Meat Packing district. I’ve heard about this Thai restaurant before. My friends always tell me how beautiful this restaurant is.

Oates reserved the longest table in the restaurant that can fit 16 people. However, 26 people show up tonight but some do not join the dinner.

The restaurant is indeed beautiful and the atmosphere is very cozy. I just find out one of my friend is a manager here. He is very hospitable enough to go down to the bar and grab more chairs for us. Moreover, at the end of the night he and my friend’s friend who work as a chef here arrange the birthday cake and give us more than 25 free drinks.

It is such a wonderful night to have friends get together and get to know each other. The party is full of laughs and smiles. I am a birthday boy so I have to walk around and talk to all of them. The hard part is to introduce everyone to each other but the great thing is they seem to get along with each other very well.

It is time to blow the candles. There are only five candles on the cake, to make my night, my friends tell me one candle represents 5 years. Yes I wish!!

I am so overwhelmed when everyone starts singing a birthday song and the waitress puts the birthday cake in front of me. I am so happy until I forget to make a wish when I blow the candles but what more do I wish for when I am having all good friends around me now.

After finishing that delicious chocolate cake, we move to the bar downstairs. The bar area is very beautiful. It has a pool that is full of small white balls near the bar. We shut down the whole dance floor. We dance, we drink and we are drunk.

At the end of the night, everyone tells me they have such a really fun night. I think so too. I tell them this birthday party has already made my year. Thanks to my friend Oates. It is always good to know that I have a lot of good friends around me.

After we close the dance floor, we end up in Chinatown and have a late night dinner. My friends start singing the birthday song when we are walking down the street again. I cannot stop smiling. I do not want it to end.

I received some messages and voice mails from some of my friends who cannot make it tonight. Some messages are from my friends in Thailand and some are from LA and Boston.

I save them all until I don’t have enough space in my cell phone anymore.

I think I am very lucky to have a lot of good friends.

My 31st birthday party tonight will be in my memory for a long long time.

Tae Athikomvittaya