[Nov 2023] Celebrating My Best Friends' Birthdays

 

While I was deep in my grief, there were a lot of wonderful things happening to my loved ones around me that helped keep me grounded. My besties Mando and Brai got engaged halfway across the world and I got to celebrate my high school best friends' birthdays. I felt that despite all the pain I was enduring, there were still beautiful things happening and the fact that I was able to feel both ends of that emotional spectrum meant that I was truly alive. In that moment I really felt like life is truly bigger than the bubble you live in and if you're able to conceptualize that it puts a lot into perspective.

Keeping long term friendships as a working adult can be really difficult. Everyone's lives change, some people branch out and start having families or some move abroad to chase their career dreams. I'm grateful every day that I am able to maintain a close friendship with my high school group and that we make an effort to see each other at least once a month.

This month was extra special as we were celebrating Branden and Steven's birthdays! We always celebrate them together because they are a day apart. This year we decided to indulge and have a fancy dinner at Octopus' Garden.

The menu was incredible but we opted to go for the custom platter. We gave them a budget and they would put together the day's specials for us. First they brought us some appetizers which were all so tasty (*´▽`*)

Then the long awaited sashimi platter arrived and it was such an incredible sight!!! Everything was extremely fresh. This was the most decadent meal I've had in a long while. I still think about this platter often (๑>؂•̀๑)

We finished off our meal with a custom matcha cake that I brought and strawberry daifuku. This was such a lovely end to our meal here but we were feeling extra gluttonous and went for bingsu immediately afterwards lmao (๑ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑)

After everything I had been through up to this point I was feeling so thankful to celebrate another wonderful year with my friends. We've been through a lot together and they have supported me through every hardship for almost 20 years now. I hope to have many more wonderful birthdays and celebrations with them ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

Bye for now!!