Let the Good Times Roll!!!!

A couple of days ago Bill told me that he had made plans for celebrating his birthday which is coming up on February 28th. I was shocked. Let's just say that social planning and decision-making is not the first arrow that Bill normally pulls from his quiver. Allow me to illustrate...


If you get more than one Reed (and we're talking biological Reeds, not grafted-in Reeds) in a car at mealtime this is the conversation you will hear every single time:


First Reed: Where do you want to get lunch? (or dinner or breakfast)


Second Reed: I don't care. Where do you want to eat?


First Reed: I really don't have a preference. You say.


Second Reed: No, you say.


First Reed: I really want you to pick.


Second Reed: I think it's your turn to decide.


This game of verbal chicken can go on for hours (and I'm not joking). Many years ago, in San Diego, we were vacationing with a full compliment of Reeds. At lunch time we piled into three cars, the goal being for the lead car to find a nice seafood restaurant and pull in for lunch with everyone else playing "follow the leader." Instead, we stopped every two or three miles and pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot to have the above conversation. Verbatim. Except with more Reeds playing restaurant decision hot potato. We did this for three hours, until it was too late to eat lunch and every thing was closed until dinner.


So you can see why it surprised me when Bill announced that he had made his own birthday plans.


Some of you may recall that last year, I surprised Bill on his birthday with a cultural experience. You can go back and read about it here:


http://billlindasworld.blogspot.com/2008/03/viva-mariachi.html


I had planned to get tickets this year to a fun concert or stage play. For my last birthday, we enjoyed the play, "Twelve Angry Men" in Los Angeles. I thought I would plan something along those lines, little knowing that he was making his own plans.

Wow! I guess it's true that great minds think alike!

Instead of going to a concert at the Fox or a play at the Music Center in L.A., though, we are going to a melodrama...at the VFW hall...in Oildale...put on by a group of oil field workers who have banded together to form a dramatic society...at the VFW hall...in Oildale.





For any of my readers who are not from this area, let me just say that Oildale is the part of town that people in Weedpatch and Pumpkin Center think is low class.



Apparently, not only does this merry band of rough necks write scripts and perform, they also cook. Included in our $100 per person ticket price is the cost of a tasty homestyle meal. AND...(it just gets better)...we get to share our table with strangers!!! Actually, they are only unknown to me. I will be celebrating my husband's birthday with several work associates and their wives, who I am sure are lovely strangers.


Let me hasten to interject that this is all for a good cause. It is a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society. After the 28th I will let you know whether it would have been better to just write a check...