Eleanoronly birthday (30th)

It's story time. I've been putting off writing this blog post for too long because there's so much to tell and so many people to thank, but there's a narrative here that's not going to wait much longer.

Melissa and I got back from China about 2 weeks before my 30th birthday. When, months ago, she asked me what I wanted to do for it, I told her that it was so close to our big international vacation that I didn't want to do anything big. She knew I was lying, I knew I was lying, but we went with the fiction until the day we left Beijing when I told her that what I really wanted to do was throw the biggest party we'd ever conceived. And I wanted to do it in the backyard. In November. With heat lamps. And I wanted Eleanor Friedberger to play a song.

She counseled me that there were various parts of this plan that were insane, firstly that it was going to be freezing and winter. And that we only had two weeks. And we didn't know Eleanor. But ... we are not ones to back away from letting mere event logistics get in the way of an absurd plan.

We settled on "basically, I want to open a pop-up restaurant and invite everyone I know" as the theme.

There are stories to tell of all the venues we saw and plans we discarded. But fast forward to two weeks later, and the twitter campaign to convince @EleanorOnly (archived copy) to come succeeds due to the most amazing coincidence, the space is beautiful, the food is amazing, and I am surrounded by my favorite people in the world.

I want to once again thank all of my wondeful friends - Henry and Tessa for putting together the bar, Dan and his cousin Jasmine for 90 perfect spheres. Rob and Pixel Case and Neko Case (the cat) for watching over 4 pork butts for 6 hours, Lindsay for watching one in her formerly vegetarian-only oven. Jon Shea and Barrett for accepting me throwing a bag of brown sugar at them and finishing the sugary pork crust. Evan and Eran being there early to be extra sets of reliable hands. Everyone who spent the entire night on their feet serving and plating food (Amos, Tim, Dina). Matt for this drawing. Bitsy for her musical accompaniment. Everyone who told stories of birthdays and the desi-american experience - Sarah, Andrea, Julia, Eran (dancing!), Akshay, Deepa and Sajid. Everyone who made desserts. They were all so good and there were so many I cannot thank you all. Also, who made the chocolate cluster cookies?

And, the three women of the night: Jamie who in addition to doing the video production for charity:water Tribute and the Times Square charity:water billboard found time to bake (and ice) two birthday cakes, edit a video of my remote family and friends wishing me a happy birthday, *and* put in a 10+ hour day helping Melissa do anything and everything that needed to be done. I can't find any photos of you, Jamie.

Eleanor. Thank you for taking a chance on our ridiculousness. A month later, I am still smiling. This also lead to the most hilarious sentence my mother, or possibly anyone, has ever uttered: "So, are you and Eleanor like BFFs now?"

Nearly all the credit goes to Melissa for executing and supporting all this. There isn't a photo of her from the evening where she isn't in motion, wearing food handling gloves, contemplating a place setting, cutting cakes, and that is a testament to how much wonderful work she did.

Staging the kitchen at home

Henry in his element, bartending

Lindsay (the vegetarian) coming in with pork butt #5

Daniel made 90 of these. He had never eaten a sphere before I put him up to this task.

Dainty Jon Shea, who I can always count on to get done whatever needs to get done.

Johnson and Liu. They're great!

Dumplings and Dan Dan Noodles for everyone from Vanessa's

The remains of the Bo Ssam Miracle.

Look at all these beautiful people!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the one and only, Eleanor Friedberger

How amazing is this? Artwork by Matt Broach

If you made it all the way down here. Well, announcement time.

Friday is my last day as the head of Venues & Geo at Foursquare (affectionately and unofficially, the Director of Geospatial Engineering). I'll be joining the Twitter team in nyc leading up parts of their geo & local team. It's been an amazing four years at Foursquare. I've made friends and family there (many of whom are featured prominently in these photos). I've checked in from SXSW and China. I will miss the team and the work and the view of lower Manhattan. I have loved working on connecting people and places and am so excited to see what the future holds for the company.

Somehow it's fitting. It's been a strange year and a month of coincidences and the week I received my offer was the week that the twitter campaign at @EleanorOnly worked out. How could I say no?