Most days at Wellesley total to the same cycles of classes, brief interludes of meals and club activities, and long hours spent at your most frequented study space. I don’t mind forgetting the mediocre lunches I have each day of the week. Those days blend together anyway. But, there are rare days where I wish I could remember every minute well spent. Last Saturday was one of those days. 🙂
In the morning, I went on a brief run outside. It was oddly misty, and cool droplets gathered on my eyelashes. I came back to do some biology readings before heading to brunch at Bates with my roommate Amy. At 1:00 PM, we took the shuttle to the Natick Mall. We were there to collect supplies for our friend Sally’s 21st birthday, but we had overestimated the time we needed. We wandered from Urban Outfitters to Uniqlo, and then picked up her cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory at 2:00 PM. It only took five minutes to get the cake, so we ended up walking around some more, popping into H&M and American Eagle to look around. It felt odd to be at a mall surrounded by families, middle schoolers, and high schoolers. It was like a time capsule – seeing trios of high schoolers that much resemble the popular friend groups from our own high schools with their cropped hoodies, boba, and high ponytails. Regardless, I’m glad that we got to wander some more – looking at clothes with friends is much more fun than lagging behind your parents at an outlet as they shepherd you from one sale to the next.
At around 3:00 PM, we took an Uber to Party City and picked up Baby Shark themed decorations for Sally’s birthday party. The helium balloons we bought barely fit in the car – they were so close to my face that I could see my eyes in the yellow Baby Shark balloon’s nostrils. It was an amusing situation that thankfully ended quickly when we got back to Wellesley at around 3:30 PM.
(From left to right) Emilie, Sally, Jackie, Tati, Amy, and Me in the bathroom after doing each other’s makeup
After a brief break, all of our friends met in the bathroom to dress up and do each other’s hair and makeup. It was like a high school movie scene where groups of girls are curling their hair and putting on bright red lipstick while gossiping and squinting in the murky bathroom mirrors. We had kept the entire evening’s plans a secret from Sally, so she had no idea what she was getting all dressed up for. We curled her hair and Tati’s; Emilie had her makeup done by Emily; Jackie’s skin was perfect so she watched us in amusement; Amy braided my hair and I did her and Sally’s makeup. Doing eyeliner on someone else is so nerve wracking! My hands were trembling, but it was fine.
Sushi Party Boat at The Mad Monkfish
In a rush to our Ubers, we took clueless Sally to a restaurant called The Mad Monkfish. We ordered chicken teriyaki fried rice, salmon poke bowl, shrimp tempura, hot wings, and a sushi party boat. We taught Tati how to use chopsticks; Emilie busted out her camera and took lovely photos of all of us; and we enjoyed the good food all while attempting to keep our extensive evening plans secret from Sally.
At around 7:30 PM, we went to Boston Symphony Hall to watch Berg’s Wozzeck – a German opera about a soldier, his wife, betrayal, mockery, and jealousy. Sally had gotten a whim that we were going to Symphony Hall, but still seemed surprised and enjoyed the show. It was heart wrenching, and all of the opera singers were incredible. The soprano Christine Goerke who played “Marie” was phenomenal – it amazes me how one voice could ring loud and clear above an entire symphonic orchestra accompaniment. After the Symphony, we took a short walk to Kung Fu Tea. The weather was horrid – somehow it was snowing again in March. It felt like the winds could easily topple us if we didn’t hunch our backs against the weather. We sat in Kung Fu Tea for a little while, chatting and sharing photos from the evening before taking Ubers back to Wellesley. Acting as though that was all we had planned for the night, we bid Sally good night and wished her a happy birthday.
By Wig Color: Tati (Hot Pink), Jessica (Yellow), Maggie (Light Pink), Sally (Lime Green), Emilie (White), Jackie (Blue), Amy (Lavender), and Me (Purple) in Sally’s room after surprising her at midnight
That was definitely not all. At around 11:30 PM, as Jackie (Sally’s roommate) kept Sally distracted, the rest of us gathered in Tati’s room to put on vibrant wigs and decked out the common room with the Baby Shark decorations we brought back earlier in the day. The wigs were terribly itchy, but they were so funny – you never expect to see your friends with such drastically different and vibrant hair in a matter of minutes. When the clock struck midnight on March 13th, we barged into Sally’s room. Sally was finally 21! We put her in a lime green wig (something she mentioned that she wanted to try) and then shepherded her into the Common Room. She was so surprised and shocked, we were glad that the extensive planning that Tati had shouldered came to fruition. After slowly working through massive slices of birthday-cake-flavored cheesecake, she opened her presents. The best surprise of the night was the top quality Henry Cavill blanket that Tati got for Sally – we all screamed when we saw it. We then played Secret Hitler for hours – it did not feel like a long evening at all until Daylight Savings hit and the clock jumped forward. When we checked the time again, it was almost 3:30 AM. We hurried to bed, laughing as we bumped into each other again in the bathroom at around 4:00 AM to shower and brush our teeth. We were so exhausted that Amy and I had almost forgotten that we had Chamber Music rehearsal at 10 in the morning. Nevertheless, it was nice to set aside our other responsibilities to solely concentrate on celebrating a big day for a good friend. 🙂