Like last year, I made my own birthday cake. It's so fun! I jammed to Rusted Root's "Send Me On My Way" on repeat while I was baking—it really made me feel like I was having my main character moment. I went even bigger this year, tackling Sally's three-layer homemade funfetti cake. I made only 1 swap to her recipe: 2 teaspoons of vanilla + 1 teaspoon of almond extract. My loved ones raved about this cake!
Sally means it when she says you need to eat this cake basically as soon as you make it, though—it does NOT keep. I baked mine on Friday morning, frosted in the afternoon, and refrigerated until Saturday morning. I took it out of the fridge ~10:30 and we cut into it ~4pm. It was delectable, although the texture was particularly of note (at least to me). I tried to sneak a bite of it on Sunday night as the last 2 pieces hung out in the fridge and it was stale. You snooze, you lose!
Saturday morning was bright, sunny, and frigid. I was sooo grateful for Evan, Molly, Grace, Cameron, Liv, and Erin who all trekked through tundra winds to have a pancake slumber party breakfast with me and Gravy Boat.
New Person assigned themself chef for the day and was hard at work dishing up blueberry, chocolate chip, and mini M&M pancakes, scrambled eggs, and fried potatoes as I yapped with my friends. (Having a partner who works in food service is definitely a life hack. I have EIGHT cold smoked salmon fillets in my fridge right now #bragging) Soon enough, we'd eaten our fill and decided to play a round (or five) of Peanuts.
Photo proof number 2:
I love my apartment to bits, but it's not really built for entertaining. My friends were such good sports and gathered on the floor around my piano bench to learn how to play the game. It was a hoot! I've never played with such a large group before and the chaos was wildly entertaining.
Peanuts is, basically, competitive solitaire and I've gone wild teaching my loved ones how to play. I taught Jess & Tessa in Maine over the summer, Evan and Jolie while we were camping last November, my grandmother and my aunt over Christmas break...if you can't find me, it's because I'm busy spreading the gospel of Peanuts.
The sole consistent element across three years of observing Kate's Perfect Day is a midday peruse through my go-to bookstore in Richmond. There, I caught up with Michael (I think he uses KPD solely as an excuse to browse their baller "used classics" shelf, no shade), my freshman roommate, Elisa, and her husband, Driscoll! I was gobsmacked El & D made the journey for me—I don't think I've seen them since their wedding!
There's a very niche kind of joy that settles over me when I'm browsing a bookstore and I look up to see one of the people I love most in the world also studying titles and flipping through pages. It makes me feel so contented and at ease, like I know that everyone is exactly where they are supposed to be in that moment.
Tessa joined us at City Dogz—the only place (at least, that I know of) where I can order a vegetarian chili dog. Sometimes, the 21st century IS good! We finally cut into the cake and played a few more rounds of Peanuts after lunch—a much needed lowkey vibe in the rush of energy that is KPD.
We migrated to Mom's house for our final event of the day: make-your-own pizzas and Matilda, one of the most Kate-ish movies ever made. Mom's house is much more suitable for hosting (she has more than 2 chairs, the show-off) and she actually owns a pizza oven (one of the best Christmas gifts I've ever given, tbh). New Person donned their chef hat again and helped Mom stretch the dough and maneuver the pies inside the 900° oven as I caught up with Leah, Harry, Willa, and Katie.
Above everything else, Kate's Perfect Day is one of my favorite days of the year because I get to connect—however briefly!—with the people I cherish most in this world. I've collected my loved ones like art pieces over the years...at KPD this year, I had 2 college roommates; a coworker that has become my older brother; a college friend who started the knitting group that has ignited a whole new obsession for me recently; 2 Richmond friends I met as part of a relatively absurd and wonderful theme-party circuit we all somehow landed on; a friend I used to run around campus and take pictures with for our HONY-style blog; a friend I taught 9th grade English with in New York what feels like a lifetime ago; a couple I met when we worked weddings together for whom I got to take graduation and wedding pictures; a friend my mother still exclusively refers to as "the boy who lives in his car" (he goes camping a lot); a Hinge date that has become a friend; and a Hinge date that has become my lover (shoutout New Person).
I feel so loved, valued, honored, challenged, and bolstered by my friends & family and I know my year will be incredible when I start it with a day that also celebrates them.
