Surprise!

We were hosting a Surprise Birthday Party tonight in the banquet room. It's an open bar situation and required a lot of prep, stocking the room with cold beer, bad wine, and well liquor. We had strict instructions and since we get a kick out of these kinds of events, we complied more merrily than usual.

Problem is, Birthday Boy arrived at the bar a half-hour before the festivities were to begin. I asked him if he wanted to see the menu; he replied that he was just meeting some friends for dinner, and he was early.

Isn't there supposed to be a decoy in these surprise situations? What kind of friends organize an elaborate Surprise Party and yet forget that one of the friends is supposed to accompany the soon-to-be surprised?

They meant so well, really, but they dropped the ball. We were all a little down when we saw the sad-clown look on their faces, when they arrived with cakes and helium balloons, only to see their subject already enjoying a Ketel One, up, olives, watching basketball at the bar while waiting for his friends.

Surprise!!!

In musical news, and in reference to the photo above, days are growing cold as the nights are long, and, as always, the best way to kick off Bar Season is to celebrate amazing live music. If you're local, for example, go see Will Hoge and opening act The Elms at Southgate House tonight, Saturday, November 4th. Here's a great link if you've never heard him. Let's all live a little, be kind to each other, and celebrate autumn; Will Hoge is the perfect tonic to pre-holiday grumpiness and grey-season adjustment.

Who knows? You might just be surprised.

Sweet promises of springtime turn the brown lies of early fall
Orbiting around a love that I once called my own
Never have I felt so small
And maybe it's the wintertime come to make me feel so cold
But there is just a slight chance that this pain comes
From watching smiles fade away
They fade away

- Will Hoge, "King of Grey"

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