Birthdays. 
You get one once a year.  And after a while, you get numb to them, and I’ve
heard that at some point, you actually start dreading them.  Thankfully,
I’m not going to be one of those people.  Each one of my birthdays will be
a blessed and sacred event that I spend with the people closest to me.  And
last night, I was lucky enough to create one of those events for someone
else.

At Mary’s wedding (see “Mary’s Married”), a close friend of mine, Sherri
Zeitman said that she wanted a surprise birthday party since her birthday
was next week.  So, I, along with a few other cohorts, gathered up some friends
of hers and planned an adventure for her.  It started with her finding a
Kidnapping Letter
attached to her door after the doorbell rang at her house at 7PM.  (At the
time, she was expecting Chuck Sutherland to pick her up.)  After waiting
for a while, I walked into her house to find her awaiting her captor.  I then took her by the hand and escorted her to my car where I never said a word.  After she was secured in the car
and unable to hear me conspire about what was next, I then called Chuck who
in turn talked to Sherri and told her that she was on a “Mission”, if she
chose to accept it.  And she did.  Chuck then told her to let the force guide
her.

I got in the driver seat, highly amused that I had made it this far w/o
messing anything up and drove over to Mindy and Shelia’s house. Along the
way, I kept performing “reality checks” on myself and couldn’t stop laughing. 
Here I was, driving a Landmark Education Self Expression and Leadership Program
Leader, blindfolded, in my Saturn and my only method of communication with
her was through motioning her arm to represent “Yes.” or “No.”, laughing
and writing letters on the palm of her hand.  She then started to tell her
captor (me) that she was really scared and excited at first; because it was
like being in one of the Teen movies.

When we arrived at Mindy and Shelia’s, we decided to make the most out of her unaware state and take a possible blackmail picture.  Little did I know that the pictures taken later on in the evening would be all the more incriminating.  We unmasked Sherri, got a great look of surprise and delight on her face and had fun drinking wine and champaigne before heading out to Abacus…home of the worlds greatest cheese fries.

A great time was had by all at Abacus as we wined and dined on some of the greatest food, deserts and cherry’s I had had in a long time.  The best picture of the night:  Smile, my gorgeous ladies.