Notice I didn’t say surprise Birthday Party, only surprise birthday. About two weeks ago I was on a business trip in Chattanooga, TN. One of my co-workers wanted to eat at a Japanese restaurant one night. I’m usually not much on Asian food, but I consented anyway. From what I could remember Japanese isn’t the typical Asian food so I thought it might be good and it was (By the way, I had a steak—didn’t want to get too adventurous).

As the waitress was bringing out the desserts, she said they had a birthday. To my utter bewilderment it was supposedly mine… so I just played along when they asked how old I was. I wasn’t sure what answer to give because I’m 22 right now, but will be 23 (in a couple of months!). I quickly settled on 22 because I didn’t want to look dumb and look like I didn’t know how old I was.

Being a Japanese Hibachi grill, you set at a table with a bunch of people you don’t know and they all sung Happy Birthday to me. Just wonderful–since I’m a fairly shy person. I even had to get my picture taken (see above).

Come to find out when Anca (the girl on the right) got up to go to the bathroom she had set me up. It turns out that this isn’t the first time they’ve played a joke on someone at a restaurant while on a business trip. Back at the office they even have a collection of pictures. When I’m out of the office, I always worry about my cube because I’ve heard many stories about cubes getting trashed while people are away. At least I have a pretty fun place to work!

Oh well, in the end the joke was on my co-workers because I got an extra helping of dessert!