Surprise! It's not your birthday...

Tim, Eric, Rick, and Ray

So, speaking of my husband (well, we were -- last week, anyway), I would never want you to think that I didn't bring my A-game for his big milestone day. I wanted to surprise him, but having thrown him a surprise 30th birthday party, I really didn't want to do the same kind of thing. Plus, we have two little children now, so I was not about to have a party here while they attempted to sleep. So I had to come up with something original, special, and out of the house. Not an extremely easy feat, I promise you.

It all started clicking when Eric saw that one of his very favorite comedians would be performing in our area late September. I told him I would take him to dinner and buy the tickets for him as an early birthday present and that I would ask his mom (a.k.a. Gemma) to babysit. As far as he knew, that was his big birthday bash. But he was wrong.

My husband rarely gets to see his best friends from high school and college since we don't live near them. All of them are scattered around several different states. That goes for his younger brother as well; he is the captain of a ship, so he is always traveling. We hardly ever get to see any or all of them, so to have them in the same place at the same time to celebrate Eric's big day with us would just be a wonderful gift, right? So, I invited all of them to meet us at the restaurant and come to the show with us. And after all, I was trying to do something memorable for his big day. Original? Check. Special? Check. Out of the house? Check.

I wish you could have seen his face when he saw his best out-of-town friends and his brother yell, "Surprise!" when we came into the restaurant. Especially since it was over two months until his actual birthday. But hey, that's a minor detail, I figured. Besides, getting everyone together in December would have proven to be much more difficult. So, surprise, Honey! It's your birthday party two months early. No wonder he never suspected a thing.

All of us at dinner

(Yes, I am making another rare appearance on my own blog.)

The show was one of the funniest I think I have ever seen. You may not know who Patton Oswalt is by name, but you may know him from television shows such as "The King of Queens" and from his voice-over work as the main character, Remy, in the children's film, Ratatouille.

Patton Oswalt

I had contacted the manager of the theater months in advance to set up a "meet and greet" with Patton, and after explaining the special night I had planned for Eric, she seemed on board to try and make that happen. My directions were to find Ms. Very Important by the stage right ushers when I got there to learn if Patton had agreed to meet with us. The manager seemed optimistic when she called earlier that afternoon, so I admit that my hopes were high. So you can imagine that I was a bit annoyed when Ms. Very Important said that Patton wasn't feeling well, but he would sign a program for Eric. Boo! I was truly disappointed and figured he was blowing us off because we were lowly Delaware peons. No, it turns out that he was so sick that at times he joked that he was coughing up different lifeforms. He even took his medication on stage because "it was time." By this time, he had totally gained my respect back even though he wouldn't see us; I was surprised that anyone would continue on with a show who was that obviously ill. And anyway, serious flu germs weren't on the list of items I had planned to get Eric for his birthday.

Outside of the theater

So, there you have it, folks. This was my big tribute to my wonderful husband's 40th birthday evening. Yeah, I am posting this a little late. But since I surprised him two months early, now that I am writing about it two months later makes it all even out, don't you think?