Around 4:30, however, I got an urgent request to do some work for my boss. I got right to work, but it ended up taking me two and a half hours to finish, so it was 7:15 before I was leaving the university. I was very worried that we would arrive at the restaurant too late, but Russell called and made a reservation for 8:00, so we knew we were okay. We had a nice dinner together and my birthday and then my birthday was over.
I was a little mopey that I hadn't gotten birthday cake, so I was planning to treat myself Saturday night while Russell was out with his friends. As it happened, my coworker (the one who did know it was my birthday) called to see if I wanted to do something with her. I told her I had been planning to take myself out to pizza and birthday cake at Mother Moon (I think I've posted pictures of their cake before). We made plans to meet downtown and go together.
We got to the restaurant, and it looked really full. I didn't think we would be able to find a seat, but Katrin suggested we at least ask, so we went in and the waitress guided us straight to a table. The table had a reserved sign on it, though, so I was worried we were taking someone else's table. The waitress said it was fine, though, and so we sat down. We decided to share the gorgonzola and mozzarella pizza and have cake after. The waiter asked something about if we wanted to order cake as well, and Katrin said, no, we would order cake afterwards.
The pizza came out and it was amazing. Very cheesy, thin crust but chewy around the edge. They did a great job (this was my first time trying their pizza). Afterwards, we got the cake menu, each chose one to share and ordered.
We were talking away and the waiter brought over this big plate. He set it in the middle of the table and it had our two slices of cake with a big dollop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and fruit. Around the edge of the plate it said "Happy Birthday Jaci" in chocolate. I looked at the plate and was really confused. I couldn't figure out how they: A. Knew it was my birthday (Katrin hadn't gotten up to use the bathroom or anything), and B: spelled my name right.
At this point Katrin started laughing. She really pulled one off this time. It turned out she really hadn't ever heard of the restaurant when I suggested it earlier that day, but she was out with another friend and happened to walk by it. She stopped in, made the table reservation, and asked if they could do a special birthday message for me. She wrote out the message and made sure they knew how to spell my name. Then she went on her way.
The really lucky thing is that Mother Moon has three locations in downtown Kobe. This isn't the one that I normally go to, but a friend had happened to bring me a few weeks back and I discovered that this venue had a pizza oven. Somehow by luck, Katrin had stumbled on the exact shop I was thinking about.
Katrin had her back to the wall and was facing the restaurant. She said it was all she could do not to laugh, or give herself away, because the waiter who was in on the surprise was really anxious and was just humming around behind me. She kept trying to reassure him that yes, we were still going to have cake, but it had to be the right moment. He had a very pleased glow about him when it all worked out.
It was a perfectly executed surprise and its going to be a special memory for a long time. I really owe her one.
