Letter from Boston Another Birthday By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
第4回合同誕生会 4月16日、雅子さんは24回目の誕生日を迎えました。当日は、用事でニューヨークまでバスで往復してへとへとになった雅子さんですが、その週末には例年どおり、誕生日の近い友達のジェイソンとの合同誕生会を開き、友人をたくさん招いて大いに盛り上がりました。

I spent most of my 24th birthday riding on a bus. My adviser had just suggested the week before that I spend the beginning of May at a physics workshop in France, so I had to go to New York City to get my new passport. The Consulate General isn't open on weekends, so I had to take a day off from school to pick it up. Academically, this day was the most convenient of all the weekdays before my departure. So I suppressed my personal wish to stay in Boston with my friends. I brought a very heavy bag full of books to read on the bus. But I got carsick on the way down and was exhausted on the way back, so I ended up trying to sleep most of the day.

ﾃWhen I got back to my room after the trip, I saw a large polystyrene heart outside my door. There was also a pile of French phrase books. My roommates had gotten me these gifts because they knew that I was about to go to a rural part of France without knowing any French. They had been very excited to hear that I was going to France, since they're all European and they all know that I've never been to Europe. This kind gesture really cheered me up. Besides, I knew that I had my birthday party to look forward to on the weekend.

My friend Jason and I have had a joint birthday party together for as long as we've known each other. This year we had our fourth Annual Birthday Bash. As usual, I did all of the cooking. Cooking for lots of people has become easier for me over the years, but the thought of preparing a well-balanced and interesting buffet still made me nervous. The party was held in my apartment, so the responsibility of being a good hostess to very loud, very drunk and/or very shy people also loomed large. However, this nervousness went away once the party started. The attendance was good, the clientele was varied, and although the guests seemed to be having a rollicking good time, nothing got out of hand.

I invited a lot of my friends, and Jason invited his own set of friends. He's a bit older than I am, so his crowd had a distinctly more mature feel. My roommates invited their friends ― including those I've never met ― and they, in turn, invited their friends. About 100 people must have shown up. Some of them ate in the kitchen, and others danced there. Some played Uno and other games in Tobias' room, and others lounged on the pillows in Alex's room. Many of the guests just stood in the entryway and hallway and talked to the passersby. A Chinese woman drew Chinese characters — tattoo-style — on eager guests. One of the next door neighbors dropped by; he said he couldn't sleep because of the noise and ended up sitting on one of the sofas and staying. We know him because he practices the drums every evening. I heard English, Hebrew, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese and German being spoken among the guests. I knew that there were at least four Russian speakers there, as well.

I really liked the crowd that had gathered, but one key presence of the evening wasn't even a person. I felt like playing the glamorous hostess role, so I had changed into a party dress right before the party. I'd been thinking of wearing the dress for months, but I had not had the opportunity to do so. It was a Manchurian-style qipao that my boyfriend had custom-ordered in China. Dozens of people commented on how nice the dress was, and it surprised me that an article of clothing could generate so much attention. I honestly was very flattered and the compliments made me happy. I think my boyfriend was pleased too.

Jason's crowd had arrived at around 9:30 p.m., and the party was still going strong at 2:30 a.m. However, the crowd was well-behaved, and most of the guests were gone by the time 3:30 a.m. rolled around. At this point, two of my roommates gave me another present. They sang a variation of the Cole Porter song "You're the Top." They had changed the lyrics so that they would match my life. It was a hilarious song, but more than the song itself, I was touched that they'd planned and practiced for a long time to get it right. The following day, they cleaned up the apartment before I even had a chance to pick up a broom. What a wonderful end to a wonderful day.

Shukan ST: May 1, 1998

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