A Birthday Weekend in the Research Department

The trouble with birthday plans is that they can become an Event. You are meant to have a table, a guest list, a mood and photographs proving everyone had a wonderful time.

This year, I skipped all that.

One evening became a wine tasting and a reconnection with the woman who used to run San Miguel’s Food in Film Festival. We found ourselves remembering my presentation of It’s Not Always What It Seems on the stage at Bellas Artes thirteen years ago. A pleasant reminder that I’ve come a long way, baby.

My actual birthday became a celebration with ten engaging young women. As I left, one cried out, “Lorraine, you’re a legend.” I am choosing to take that as a challenge.

There was dinner with a close friend at Munay on Recreo, now my new fave restaurant after a flawless meal. Sunday was the icing on the cake: a roam through San Miguel with no destination, just deciding in real time where I most wanted to be.

The answer was the lounge at Atrio, a comfy sofa, a charming waiter, a glass of Prosecco, the best bread in town, and a moment to take it all in.

The best part was none of it required a grand plan. There was just wine, history, friendship, good food, a little admiration, and the freedom to roam until everything felt just right. Including the mariachis and a stroll under fluttering papel picados on the way home.

And, because I write screenplays, this wasn't simply another pleasant weekend. A wine tasting turned into a memory of a stage at Bellas Artes and the nerves that went with it. A perfect little restaurant became a location for a lovers' tryst. A sexy lounge became a respite for a woman, perchance coddling a broken heart (not mine, to be clear).

That is how material accumulates. You eat something wonderful, roam somewhere you have walked a hundred times, reconnect with someone who knew a former version of you. Much later, a character takes the walk, eats the meal, says a line, or makes a decision you had no intention of making.

Eat. Write. Roam. I call that location scouting.

Prosecco & Pan at Atrio ©LorraineFlett