Surprise!

On Wednesday, my sister Emily came over to babysit while Eric and I went to dinner for my birthday. My sister slipped up just a little earlier this week and I suspected something might be going on... like we would come home from dinner to a surprise party and eat cake.

On our way to Market Street Grill, we stopped at Eric's office to pick up a coupon for a free dessert. I waited for him in the car, which should have taken about three minutes. Well, about 10 minutes later, I was thinking, "Oh great, some maniac is on the 5th floor and has killed my husband, and I'm a widow on my birthday." I was wondering at what point I should go in and figure out what happened. Well, I hate to admit, that is the way I think whenever Eric arrives late. Hopefully being a worrier will be the worst of what I go through... it's bad enough to think these things could happen and begin a mourning process... but to have it actually happen would be my worst nightmare. So, he finally came back to the car and I told him I was glad he was alive.

Then he told me we needed to take a detour because he had listened to his messages and he had accidentally left his wallet and portfolio at Buca di Beppo at lunchtime (and the portfolio had confidential client info, and the wallet had our way to pay for dinner). When we arrived at Buca, he said I needed to come look at a large picture inside that looks just like his friend Digby (Rick Kone). I was very surprised when my family and a few friends yelled SURPRISE! We were celebrating my birthday at Buca di Beppo! It was a lot of fun. It was a great birthday celebration. The food served was bruschetta (yummy!), spaghetti and meatballs, chicken parmagiana, and lasagne, and an assortment of desserts.

There were bunches of black "over the hill" balloons. And my sister read an "obituary". My dad shared a poem he wrote about me. The kids ran around and made a lot of noise.

To tell you the truth, I was wondering how this event would be paid for... I was slightly worried as we are not currently in a position to host such an event. My worry increased when I saw Eric signing the credit card slip (over $700 at $27/head plus tax and gratuity). The practical side of me was remembering our dues dinner for sorority at Spaghetti Factory (only $8 a head) and wishing Eric had known of less expensive options, which would have enabled some to come that could not be there. And although he did let people know that we could not pay, it's too easy not to realize how much gratuity and taxes add to the bill. So our share of the bill ended up being over $200, assuming those who forgot a check remember to pay later... a couple hundred more bucks! (which is a whole lot better than $700). Anyway, I have to try to sometimes ignore the cost of things!

It seems that it was a bit of miss as far as a good night for people to come, as many of my dear friends could not be there, and I know Eric tried very hard to get the word out to a lot of friends to make this birthday extra special (some he didn't know how to contact, others just couldn't come). I will have to get my contact info together to make it easier for next time. : )

That's the way the ball bounces sometimes. I remember being so disappointed when we invited about 16 people to Michael's 5th birthday, and no one was there the first 30 minutes... I was trying so hard not to cry. Then a couple of people came after I called those who had said they were coming... it was all good and turned out to be a great celebration. Then when we had his 6th birthday party, we invited about 25 kids and I said siblings could come to the magic show... we had 35 kids come to that one... go figure.

I'm so glad Eric worked so hard to make this "big birthday" special. He's awesome!

I also should mention that Emily took me out for lunch to the cafe at Nordstrom's, and that we had our makeup done at Mac's afterword. Then she bought me caramels and a caramel apple at V Chocolates, yummmm! It was way fun. The makeup looked pretty dramatic since I'm not used to wearing very much makeup. So I was "made up" for the party.