An AMAZING Saturday night
Saturday was an interesting day all around, but the night blew me away.
I started the day bright and early, heading up to Astoria to help slothshaman move. We picked up a truck (which we quickly dubbed the SS Bouncy Castle), drove down to his apartment in Williamsburg, were met there by Mook and beanish, and then loaded up. Nothing too stressful-a few tight moments getting the futon and the drafting table out and down the stairs, but otherwise not a problem.
Got almost everything packed by two and were ready to get out of there, until a cab decided “oh sure, I can get past the moving truck that’s clearly pulling out, no problem. Oh wait, I need to swerve into oncoming traffic to do it? No problem. Wait, what’s this? The moving truck is *still* pulling out? He’s not stopping to let me complete my insane driving maneuver, despite my speeding up to try cutting him off? WTF?” Hilarity-or at least some mild scraping-ensued. Though I have to admit, I cracked up when the cab’s fare, a typical little hipster girl, got out of the cab afterward and screamed at me “Learn how to f*cking drive!” Sweetie, if you knew how to drive you wouldn’t have needed a cab in the first place. And if your cabbie knew how to drive, he wouldn’t have tried to end-run around a moving truck. So you’re talking to the wrong person here.
An hour passed while we waited for the cops to take the accident report. Yes, an hour. When they showed up, they put the accident time as 2:50. Try 2:10, officers. Oh wait, wouldn’t want to admit your real response time, would you? Esp. when there’s a precinct house only a few blocks away.
Anyway, headed over to my place afterward to store the drafting table because it wouldn’t fit in storage. Then, because we were running late now, the guys took the truck over to finish moving everything into storage and I showered and changed. Why? Because my wonderful wife jendaby and I were going out. On a date. Just the two of us. We were going to celebrate both my birthday (last Tuesday) and our anniversary (this Tuesday).
My wife is a liar.
In the best possible way.
So I go in, shower, change, the babysitter arrives (and we almost didn’t find one, so some nail-biting there), and we head out. We get uptown to Isabella’s, the restaurant jendaby picked, and I tell the hostess “We have a reservation for two at six o’clock. Rosenberg.”
She’s looking for it, having trouble finding it, until jendaby says “it’s for four.”
Wait, what?
“Oh, the rest of your party’s already here,” the hostess replies. And leads us up to a table-
--where my best buddy lexman8 and his lovely wife (and also one of our really good friends) Amy are waiting for us.
HOLY CRAP!!!
I was completely stunned. I think I said “Wow” about twenty times. I haven’t seen Lex in two years (since our last Midwest trip), and Amy in four or five. I had no idea they were coming up, none whatsoever, despite the fact that Lex and I spoke on my birthday. And they flew up just for this.
Sneaky bastards.
So we had a great dinner-very good food, nice atmosphere, and amazing company. As we were finishing, jendaby said, “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere else for dessert? Or maybe we should find some place where you guys can play pool.” Lex and I used to play pool every Saturday.
“Sure, sounds good,” we all agree.
“Hm,” jendaby adds a second later. “You know, P&Gs is right near here. They have a pool table. And drinks.”
Cool. slothshaman and I actually stopped by P&Gs a week or two back to say hi to airspaniel, who works there now. We even got in a game or two of pool at the time. Really nice place-quiet, friendly, great atmosphere.
So we head over to P&Gs. We walk in, and jendaby says, “Let me go and see if the Red Room is free.” They have two pool tables, one in the Red Room and one in the Green Room. She heads back that way. I look over and see a couple standing near the archway leading into the Red Room.
“Hm, it looks like there are some people over there already,” I comment as I follow jendaby. Then I realize, “Actually, I think I know those people.” Which I did, because I’d realized it was one of my work buddies, Jon, and his girlfriend Karin.
Then I reach the archway. There are a lot of people in there. They’re all staring at me. And they all look familiar. “Wait, I know all these people,” I manage to say, just before they all shout out:
“SURPRISE!”
My response was:
“Holy crap!”
Yes, that’s how articulate I am. Good thing I’m a writer.
jendaby had organized this entire thing, sly devil that she is. There were probably around thirty people there, including my youngest sister and her husband, my adoptive older sister and *her* husband, slothshaman and beanish and Mook, and a ton of others. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew about this thing. Everyone except, obviously, me. And everyone managed to keep it a secret, despite my seeing most of them within the past week or so.
Amazing.
We had a blast, too. Cupcakes were consumed, as was pizza. Drinks were had. Pool was played. Presents and cards were gleefully received. And a whole lot of friends were hugged and hung out with. I just wish I’d had more time to talk to everyone who made it.
Things petered out a little before midnight and we caught a cab back home. Paid the babysitter, checked on the kids, and then toddled off to bed.
A very, very great evening. Thank you to all of you who contributed, and the rest of you, well, I’m sorry you couldn’t make it. :)
I started the day bright and early, heading up to Astoria to help slothshaman move. We picked up a truck (which we quickly dubbed the SS Bouncy Castle), drove down to his apartment in Williamsburg, were met there by Mook and beanish, and then loaded up. Nothing too stressful-a few tight moments getting the futon and the drafting table out and down the stairs, but otherwise not a problem.
Got almost everything packed by two and were ready to get out of there, until a cab decided “oh sure, I can get past the moving truck that’s clearly pulling out, no problem. Oh wait, I need to swerve into oncoming traffic to do it? No problem. Wait, what’s this? The moving truck is *still* pulling out? He’s not stopping to let me complete my insane driving maneuver, despite my speeding up to try cutting him off? WTF?” Hilarity-or at least some mild scraping-ensued. Though I have to admit, I cracked up when the cab’s fare, a typical little hipster girl, got out of the cab afterward and screamed at me “Learn how to f*cking drive!” Sweetie, if you knew how to drive you wouldn’t have needed a cab in the first place. And if your cabbie knew how to drive, he wouldn’t have tried to end-run around a moving truck. So you’re talking to the wrong person here.
An hour passed while we waited for the cops to take the accident report. Yes, an hour. When they showed up, they put the accident time as 2:50. Try 2:10, officers. Oh wait, wouldn’t want to admit your real response time, would you? Esp. when there’s a precinct house only a few blocks away.
Anyway, headed over to my place afterward to store the drafting table because it wouldn’t fit in storage. Then, because we were running late now, the guys took the truck over to finish moving everything into storage and I showered and changed. Why? Because my wonderful wife jendaby and I were going out. On a date. Just the two of us. We were going to celebrate both my birthday (last Tuesday) and our anniversary (this Tuesday).
My wife is a liar.
In the best possible way.
So I go in, shower, change, the babysitter arrives (and we almost didn’t find one, so some nail-biting there), and we head out. We get uptown to Isabella’s, the restaurant jendaby picked, and I tell the hostess “We have a reservation for two at six o’clock. Rosenberg.”
She’s looking for it, having trouble finding it, until jendaby says “it’s for four.”
Wait, what?
“Oh, the rest of your party’s already here,” the hostess replies. And leads us up to a table-
--where my best buddy lexman8 and his lovely wife (and also one of our really good friends) Amy are waiting for us.
HOLY CRAP!!!
I was completely stunned. I think I said “Wow” about twenty times. I haven’t seen Lex in two years (since our last Midwest trip), and Amy in four or five. I had no idea they were coming up, none whatsoever, despite the fact that Lex and I spoke on my birthday. And they flew up just for this.
Sneaky bastards.
So we had a great dinner-very good food, nice atmosphere, and amazing company. As we were finishing, jendaby said, “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere else for dessert? Or maybe we should find some place where you guys can play pool.” Lex and I used to play pool every Saturday.
“Sure, sounds good,” we all agree.
“Hm,” jendaby adds a second later. “You know, P&Gs is right near here. They have a pool table. And drinks.”
Cool. slothshaman and I actually stopped by P&Gs a week or two back to say hi to airspaniel, who works there now. We even got in a game or two of pool at the time. Really nice place-quiet, friendly, great atmosphere.
So we head over to P&Gs. We walk in, and jendaby says, “Let me go and see if the Red Room is free.” They have two pool tables, one in the Red Room and one in the Green Room. She heads back that way. I look over and see a couple standing near the archway leading into the Red Room.
“Hm, it looks like there are some people over there already,” I comment as I follow jendaby. Then I realize, “Actually, I think I know those people.” Which I did, because I’d realized it was one of my work buddies, Jon, and his girlfriend Karin.
Then I reach the archway. There are a lot of people in there. They’re all staring at me. And they all look familiar. “Wait, I know all these people,” I manage to say, just before they all shout out:
“SURPRISE!”
My response was:
“Holy crap!”
Yes, that’s how articulate I am. Good thing I’m a writer.
jendaby had organized this entire thing, sly devil that she is. There were probably around thirty people there, including my youngest sister and her husband, my adoptive older sister and *her* husband, slothshaman and beanish and Mook, and a ton of others. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew about this thing. Everyone except, obviously, me. And everyone managed to keep it a secret, despite my seeing most of them within the past week or so.
Amazing.
We had a blast, too. Cupcakes were consumed, as was pizza. Drinks were had. Pool was played. Presents and cards were gleefully received. And a whole lot of friends were hugged and hung out with. I just wish I’d had more time to talk to everyone who made it.
Things petered out a little before midnight and we caught a cab back home. Paid the babysitter, checked on the kids, and then toddled off to bed.
A very, very great evening. Thank you to all of you who contributed, and the rest of you, well, I’m sorry you couldn’t make it. :)