Surprise, Surprise

Yesterday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. The 8-month old was awake from 2 to 5 a.m.; school was a disaster; track practice ended at 4:30, but I was there until 5:32 when the last kid’s ride finally showed up; and to top it all off, we were going to have dinner with some of my wife’s oldest friends (her college roommate and her best friend from childhood). I was supposed to be home early enough to help clean up or watch the boys so she could clean up, and I hit every one of the 14 possible red lights on my trip home. I was incredibly frustrated.

I got home, and she had already cleaned up, and I felt pretty bad, but she said it was okay. She needed me to watch the boys for a few minutes while she cleaned the bathroom – it was apparently the last thing that needed to be done. We were meeting her best friend (the old roommate had cancelled) at Louie’s Pizza, a local chain (if there is such a thing) which has great pizza but the ambience of a truck stop bathroom. As we pulled up, I saw a friend from our Sunday night Bible study – what a neat coincidence.

And then, another friend walked right in front of our car as we were unloading the boys. He seemed startled to see me, and then helped me by grabbing the diaper bag (which my wife insisted we didn’t need in the restaurant). And then it dawned on me, there were going to be more people here than just her old friend.

When we walked in, there were way more than I expected: a whole dozen of my friends – J-M, Bob, Calvin, Brad, Matt, Marshall, Aaron, Adam, BJ, my brothers Matthew and Manuel, and my nephew Johnathan. My wife took our sons and went home. What a great birthday present (she really took me by surprise since my birthday was almost two weeks ago).

We ate pizza and Calzones, then we came back to my house where my wife had cleaned everything, made ginger snaps, and reclaimed to pool table/darts room from its use as a storage room.

My wife is the best wife a guy could ever have. Thanks, honey, for the greatest birthday party I’ve ever had!