Memory Lane Monday

A new installment here on my blog, maybe for when I really don't have anything to say. Jay's birthday is coming up and I love to celebrate birthdays. It's a special day for someone and it should be celebrated in the biggest way, after all it is the day you were born! October-2005: Jay's 30th birthday was a monumentous occasion and I wasn't going to let it get swept under the rug with a regular dinner outting. I started planning months in advance. We were going to take a trip to Lake Charles Louisiana and have a weekend of gambling and fun with family and friends. The trip alone would be a nice treat but I had arranged with a bunch of Jay's family and friends to join in on the weekend of fun. I booked a block of hotel rooms for everyone and arranged for a private dining room at Harrah's for dinner before letting the kids loose in the casino. I was so excited about it that I could hardly contain myself, all Jay's friends were equally excited. I had told Jay that we were going away for the weekend and that's all I said. Little did I know that the weekend of fun was just not in the cards (no pun intended). Late August 2005 a little known hurricane named Katrina hit the coast of Louisiana. Although Lake Charles was not hit, it did eliminate my hotel reservations due to evacuees being housed there. I wasn't sure what I was going to do but just to put my mind to ease, another little lady came along in September. Hurricane Rita decided to wipe out the casino in Lake Charles, literally ripped it in half. Great! The dream of this great surprise birthday trip for my husband was wiped away. I know, I shouldn't be so selfish when all these people had everything they owned washed away but I was excited about my fool-proof surprise. So, at the last minute, plan B started to brew. I arranged for a large party to meet for dinner at Jay's favorite restaurant Larry's in Richmond. The guests would arrive 20 minutes before we did. I told Jay about the weekend trip I had planned for us since it wouldn't be occuring and he was very excited yet bummed that we didn't get to go, I held back the details about his friends and family being there until after the party because they were all waiting at the restaurant. I told him that we would just go to dinner to celebrate his birthday. I diverted him a few different directions and left the actual destination a surprise as well. He sort of chuckled when we pulled into Larry's parking lot. He let out an even bigger laugh when all his friends and family hollared surprise when we walked in. It was a great evening, tons of food, family and we even went back to the house to play poker afterwards.