I don’t have a ton of traditions that I do every year, but the few that I do have are very special to me. And one of the few traditions I have are dinners with my birthday twin. We have our (almost) free birthday dinner and we have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory around the new year. The birthday dinner is usually done very close to our birthday since we have to go during our birthday month to get our discounts. But our cheesecake dinner is a bit more flexible. Sometimes we go before the holidays and sometimes we go after the new year. But whenever we go, we have been pretty good about making sure we have our dinner even if it’s a month or so late.
This year, I decided to be proactive in making sure we got our dinner in as close to the new year as possible. I knew both of us are busy so it might be tough to figure out when we could make dinner plans. So I reached out Joanna right around the 1st to say we needed to plan our dinner. And we were able to find some time this week that worked for both of us after work. Since the restaurant we go to is closer to my side of town than it is for Joanna, I let her decide the best time for her to meet. We had to be a bit flexible with each other because our schedules ended up being a bit busier than we expected, but we managed to arrive within minutes of each other and we were quickly seated for dinner (which was a miracle since there is usually a 30-minute wait).
We actually had decided on our cheesecake choices before we decided on our dinners, but we wanted to get the food ordering out of the way first so we could eat and get to our catch up talk.
We usually talk about the same few topics whenever we meet up. We catch each other up on what’s happening with our families and acting careers. But the main thing we usually talk about is the craziness about the dating world. We both have had a lot of random stories to share over the years and I love that we both have stories so it’s not just me sharing them. And as always, we both had lots of dating updates to give each other. And since both of us take screenshots of the profiles of the guys we meet (it’s a safety thing), we could show each other who we’ve had dates with. I’m waiting for the day that she and I (or any friend I know who is dating) discover that we have gone out with the same guy. That hasn’t happened yet, but I bet one day it will happen.
Both of us have had some good and bad dating stories to share, so it wasn’t all crazy stories. And I think hearing a friend is going through the same ups and downs that I am helps me feel like I’m not alone in my random journey with dating. And we can also support each other which is another positive. We both have recently had situations that hurt a bit, so it was nice to get some in-person support. And even though I know dissecting what happened on dates doesn’t necessarily do any good, sometimes it’s nice to go over things and have someone else confirm that the situation was weird or that I didn’t do anything wrong.
And of course, being at the Cheesecake Factory we had to have cheesecake! We did our usual tradition of ordering 2 different types and each getting half of a slice. Things are so much easier now that we know we can ask them to cut each slice in half. 2 halves of a slice are so much cheesecake, but it’s so good!
After our dinner and cheesecake, we were both very full. Since the restaurant wasn’t crowded we didn’t feel too bad about hanging around there for a while. And also, our service was a bit slow so we had to wait a very long time to get our dessert and the check. We ended up being there much longer than I expected, but we had a great time being able to hang out and catch up. And it was nice not feeling rushed that we had to get out of there. But since we both had to work the next morning, we didn’t stay out too late because we both wanted to get home to get to bed at a decent hour.
Every time Joanna and I meet up, we say that we need to hang out more often than our 2 traditions. But our schedules don’t always work that way and before we know it it’s time to have one of our traditional meals again. We do make efforts to see each other more than twice a year, but at least I know we will have our birthday dinner in August for our next catch up if we don’t have one sooner.
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Very Belated New Years Cheesecake (or A Birthday Twin Dinner)
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Holiday Cheesecake (or Birthday Twins and Twinkle Lights)
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