The Five Long Days

Wednesday: My daughter came over for Meals on Wheels Wednesday morning. We had a pretty short route - I guess because of the Easter holiday. I had holiday meals to give out, so it was nice to have an extra set of hands. I didn't have "Squiggy's" partner so if I don't have him again I will call MOW to check up on him. I also didn't have the sweet old Mexican lady that adores my daughter so much, but we checked her street and her son's car was there and it looked like another car was there so I'm guessing she had other lunch plans. It was a gorgeous day and one of my ladies, who doesn't do much moving around, was out in her yard wacking at weeds with her cane. That was awfully cute. It's one of those metal type canes with "legs" at the bottom. She was in a good mood. That was so nice to see. Kate wanted to eat lunch outside so we went to Abuelo's which has a really nice patio area. We lucked out and had a fun waitress. After lunch, we still had some time before our hair appointments, so we hit Italianni's for some drinks and flirting (on Kate's part) with one of our favorite bartenders. When we got to the salon, I explained the change I wanted to my hair. He put the color on, I moved to another seat and held my breath for the part that was coming up: seeing my daughter's hair wacked off. She had printed out the rules from the "Locks of Love" website and was ready to go for it. It all happened pretty quickly and then I watched Tyler clip away at her hair. He did a fantastic job! I don't think Kate has had hair that short since she was 9, but it looked great. Then it was my turn. Well just for a slightly different cut. He did a great job. I thought we were the two cutest redheads in the world! On the way home we stopped to order the birthday cake for Saturday's party.
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Thursday: After I woke up (I always sleep until noon or so) My Sweetie, who had the day off and had been waiting patiently for his gift, got to open his present. I got him a private boxing lesson at a real boxing gym! He is a giant boxing fan, is always shadow boxing all over the house and talking about boxing. I knew he'd love this gift. He thinks he even knows the gym owner from high school. We had lunch and I got ready and packed and we headed downtown to the Marriott (pictured above). We settled in and headed out. First, we stopped off on the 5th floor to check out the smoking area. It was a nice area by a pool and had speakers playing great music. Then we headed out to the Flying Saucer, one of our favorite drinking spots. We settled in at the bar and had a good ol' time for several hours. We met a guy from Dallas who was in town for a wedding shower/party thing. He said the funniest thing. We were discussing European travel and food. He said he had been to Spain and that the food was pretty good but "Everything was ham and something else." That really hit my funny bone. I laughed so hard. That still makes me laugh. Our new saying is "Everything was ham and something else." I love it! After that we had dinner at Chili's because it was across the street from our hotel, changed, and went to City Streets to dance and play. City Streets is a cool place. It has a classic dance music section, a hip-hop club, a karaoke bar, and a pool-hall type room with live music. We had a blast.
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Friday: After a nice room service brunch, I couldn't take it any longer. I said, "I have to tell you something. I contacted D and invited a bunch of your co-workers to meet us for happy hour at 8.0 for happy hour." 8.0 is a really cool bar downtown. I'm not a good secret keeper and My Sweetie is not a surprise lover so I figured this was a good time to let it out. He was actually tickled and called his assistant at work to see if he needed directions or anything. We were just going to spend the afternoon walking around downtown and My Sweetie wanted me to buy some little gifties for myself at the cool shops, but the weather had turned. The temperature dropped like crazy and the wind picked up. We did walk around a little and I did buy a neat mini-poster from the movie The Outlaw with Jane Russell which is already hanging over our bar. I also bought a cute green beaded anklet. And we had some beers at Risky's - it was fun reminiscing there about our various lunches and whatnot from 1995 and 1996. (That's actually where we were sitting when they read the O.J. Simpson trial verdict.) We headed back to the room to drop off our purchases and brave the chilly wind to head back out. One of his co-workers was already at 8.0 when we got there and then they just kept showing up over time. Along with my daughter. Most of My Sweetie's co-workers are guys so my duaghter became the "Belle of the Ball." It was fun to watch. After many rounds of drinks, we headed over to City Streets. Next is when Hell froze over. My Sweetie got up, IN FRONT OF MANY CO-WORKERS, and sang in the karaoke bar! I couldn't believe it!! I was so shocked. And then, well, and then, HE DID IT AGAIN! It was crazy. Over time people started splitting up. Some people loved the hip-hop club, but we both found the bass speakers in there were unnaturally shaking up the marrow in our bones. We did dance some in the classic disco part, but I barely remember it. At some point we stumbled out onto the street and went for a late night snack before calling it a day.
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Saturday: They were having the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure run this morning and I felt sorry for them because when I woke up at 9:22 a.m., I looked out the window AND IT WAS SNOWING!!! In April in Texas. Snowing. We didn't see that coming. We checked out at noon and there was a huge crowd waiting for their cars. It reminded me of trying to leave a cruise ship and if you've ever done that you know how hideous THAT is. So I did something unheard of. In practically my pajamas - sweats and a t-shirt - and just my jacket, I went across the street for a beer at Chili's. I felt so weird in there in my house clothes, no shower, no make-up, crazy hair and all. Not to mention watching the snow flurries. My Sweetie said he would call when he got the car so I could meet him outside. My phone rang. It was not him. Instead his sister was calling to see if we were okay with postponing the birthday party/shrimp boil for a day. It was awesome! We were so dead and hungover we were more than happy to wait a day. We would have made poor conversationalists! I spent the whole afternoon laying on the couch watching 3 episodes of my soap that I had missed. That night we watched the TV shows we had recorded like "Survivor" and "Numb3rs." We were brain dead. I think the only things we said to each other were, "I'm glad the party was postponed."
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Sunday: I got up, wrapped two gifts and we headed over to Mansfield, Texas. The house seeemed very quiet. We found out the two oldest kids were at their Dad's and the baby was sick in bed. I was disappointed that I didn't get to see my niece's reaction when she opened her (belated) birthday gift. She's 13 and we got her an iPod. Oh well. My brother-in-law, the fireman loved his t-shirt. I always get him a fire and rescue t-shirt. This one was from the Cherokee Nation. I have so much fun picking those out every year. I got some nice gifts and so did My Sweetie. My Mother-in-law kept saying, "You're really 46?" And I kept saying. "I will be on the 20th." It seemed to freak her out. The shrimp boil was excellent as always, but I think the crab legs were the biggest ever. THEY WERE HUGE. This time I brought home some leftovers and I had an awesome lunch today. Oh and everyone laughed at the birthday cake that I brought with the caption "We are Old" along with a some rosettes.
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Well that was our birthday weekend. I have a feeling My Sweetie will always remember his fortieth birthday. I hope so. And I hope he likes his boxing lesson.