Choose the cake. Pasta carbonara, macaroni and cheese or marinaded flank steak with a side of cheese bread. Danish cream cake with raspberry filling, carrot cake or banana cream pie. It's not just food, although food is important. Food is critical.
Food is a reason to be alive.
Good fortune reigns all birthday long. There's an unwritten truce between brothers and sisters on birthdays. They must act as if they actually like one another. Everybody makes a fuss about you, starting with your parents. Just the day before, they may have been grousing about your quarter grades, the slow response time on chores or the clear, unreadable look in your eyes that scares them from time to time.