One Moment

It slips into your life quickly and quietly, that one moment that shines, that one moment you are glad you didn't miss.

A couple of weeks ago, several of the girls who come into my classroom to eat lunch and TALK were sharing upcoming birthdays. As the chatter went on and on, one of them asked me when it would be my birthday, and I told her June 1.

"Oh, my god!" she screamed. "My birthday is June 6th! Isn't that too cool?"

Way cool, I thought, but publicly agreed with her that it was, indeed, my good fortune to share her birth month. Later, she told the entire class about our fortuitous birthday bond, and another girl added that her birthday was May 29. Again with the "oh, my god" response, and more general commentary on our coinciding bono natales. It is amazing how much conversation occurs about what seems, on the surface, to be ... nothing much.

The next day, she again mentioned our shared birthdays and we turned the talk to celebrations. As the conversation progressed, I mentioned about going to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my birthday, splurging on a piece of Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake, one of the greatest tastes in the world, to mark my auspicious last birthday as a teacher, as pointed out to me by the girls.

I'm not sure why all these esoteric connections have to be made, but I've learned that with kids, you don't mess with karma because what goes around comes around--and I don't want to get hit in the back of the head for failure to yield.

I decided to invite the students in the two girls' classes to join us at The Cheesecake Factory on May 30 to celebrate everyone's birthday. It was my intent to purchase a piece of cheesecake for each student who joined the original celebrants, but as is so often the case, a better offer came along and today, the celebration day, there were 3 students with me as I headed to the restaurant.

Because I no longer would be paying for 25 pieces of cheesecake, we all enjoyed a hamburger and fries, the girls too excited to actually eat, so most of the meal went into take-home boxes. They had already window-shopped at the cheesecake counter, so after another in-depth exploration of the menu options, we all ordered cheesecake.

It came with a crew and a candle, and after the group rendition of the birthday song, we blew out the candles, forked off a bite from each of the 4 cheesecakes to share, and then sat back to savor the best cheesecake in the world.

The girl who ordered the Godiva chocolate cheesecake gave up half-way through, proclaiming it not only delicious, but so rich she simply could not put another bite into her mouth. The oreo cheesecake gal made a valiant effort, but she, too, conceded defeat about half-way through. The plain cheesecake was, well, a piece of cake for the eater and disappeared while the other two were fumbling with the to-go boxes.

My cheesecake? Are you kidding me? It has been 8 MONTHS since I've had sugar! Of course I ate every single bite and scraped the plate.

The girls continued to chatter incessantly as I drove them and the carry-out boxes home. It was quiet when I was alone in the car, but I had to drive 50 miles up the hill to hand in grades before 6 pm, and I knew it was going to be close.

Thank god for the sugar surge as I kept the pedal to the metal and actually made it exactly to the minute. During the drive back home, my head began to get that old headachy feeling that means I'm going to crash from the sugar and, perhaps, regret the cheesecake, but I doubt it.

It was one moment, a perfect moment, and I am glad I was there to enjoy it.