Birthday Wishes ... 3 Weeks Late

Tim's Birthday celebration was inadvertently put on hold when I was admitted to the hospital for having too many Braxton Hicks contractions. We had planned on going to Disneyland that day to take advantage of the Birthday giveaway they have been promoting since December. Unfortunately, I was held in Labor and Delivery until 8pm that night and was ordered not to do that much walking.

We had also hoped to make it to a dueling piano bar with some friends, which I would have been able to do, but many of the people we hoped would come, were unavailable until last weekend. So ... about 12 of us went to a local place called Rock-The-Keys. We had a blast and Tim was even "invited" to the stage to be heckled by the talented comedians/musicians. Thankfully, I was not included in joining him on stage. We heard that they like to have particular fun with pregnant ladies by teasing them ruthlessly. The show was actually quite good. They have 3 players rotating regularly so the show has no break for about 4 or so hours. Most of the patrons are there to celebrate something ... Birthdays, Anniversaries, upcoming Weddings. As the friends of the focus of each celebration, we were encouraged to dedicate a song to them. Usually the song that was chosen by the patrons was not the song serenaded to the Birthday Boy/Girl, etc., which in most cases didn't really matter.



Still, it was a blast. This particular place allowed us to have 6 people in for free, discounted food/beverages, and they would assist in any cake or desert we brought for the celebration. Tim chose Strawberry Shortcake and they took my bag of separated items (cakes, fruit, whipped cream, etc.) to the kitchen and set it all up for us. They even served it as if we ordered it from them. It was great!


As the night wound down, the show was understandably also winding down. No one was really requesting any music, so the players are left to their own ideas. Some were good, some not so good. We all had a great time and look forward to doing it again some day. Maybe we'll try a new place next time just to get an idea of what else is out there.

The weekend of celebrating did not end there. We also had Tim's family birthday celebration after Easter lunch yesterday. Every other month we celebrate all the birthdays for the two months in that cycle (Ex: January and February will be celebrated on the first Sunday of February). Tim's birthday ... as of right now ... is the only birthday in the months of March and April. Assuming this baby is born as early as my doctor thinks, he may finally be sharing that celebration with his own son. At first I didn't like the move to this format of celebrating birthdays, but we have been doing it for the last 3 years, and I have come to appreciate it. It's much easier and helps with scheduling for everyone. We can all pretty much expect when the celebration will take place.

Lesson Learned: When planning a party with lots of friends, some will have to be sacrificed due to scheduling conflicts. At all costs, make sure they know they will be missed and that the choice to have the party on the day the expressly said they could not be there is not a slight or lack of respect of their schedule. If all could have made it, all would have been welcome.