07.31.2012 - SURPRISE!!

We NAILED the surprise party this weekend!!!
Kristy's husband Chet did a fantastic job getting Eric down to Seaside Heights on time, and played into the whole "your friends and wife abandoned you this weekened - that happens when you get older and birthdays don't count for as much."

All 24 people in attendance sat in utter silence in the backyard, waiting for what felt like eternity as Eric and Chet unpacked the car and bags in hands, made their way slowly down the alley way to the backyard. (I think I clutched Kristy's arms so hard, finger marks are still there.)

We did it. We all yelled SURPRISE and he just stopped walking and started smiling really big as he noticed each face that had traveled down for his 30th birthday. And it was all worth it.

The times where I know he felt I was hiding something (that sucked); and the night before the party when I partied with his sister and friends and felt HORRIBLE that he had to sit at home all alone with his beer and TV shows; and the morning of the party, his ACTUAL birthday, when I didn't call him until noon and he was all peeved that he had to be calling all of his friends to see what they were doing and did they love him enough to come down and maybe barhop with us later.

He cancelled the divorce papers (ha!) and even though he'd told me months before that he would never want a surprise party, Eric had a kickin' 30th:

And yes, it poured.  But we still had a blast - thanks to a neighbor/friend's canopy, and Hefty garbage bags, as Danielle modeled during beer pong.

Rainy! Rainy! Rainy!

HEFTY!! HEFTY!! HEFTY!! 

By the end of the night, Eric and his buddy Billy had finished:

a bottle of Jameson
a bottle of Cafe Patron
a bottle of Jack Daniel's honey


and their dignities, as they ramped up on their drunken testosterone and peed in different corners of the backyard.