after spending the day a my very crappy ex-job, i was all ready for a quiet night in with the wife for my recent birthday. at lunchtime she had given me an iPod shuffle, so i was planning to spend the evening loading it up with songs and seeing just how random it was.
but wouldn't you know, that wonderful woman had other plans for me, plans i should have figured out, but didn't even when they were all but happening. when i got home she told me we would be going out to dinner, which i'd half expected, but it seemed odd that we would have to leave at a certain time, as she informed me we would; after all, it's not like we can easily make reservations here. so when the appointed time came, she drove, or rather rode, us into town and turned down a side street i wasn't very familiar with. suddenly the penny dropped and i figured out that she'd found the awesome shabu-shabu restaurant we'd been to our first week here. but we kept on going and turning until we came right back out by the Hard Rock Cafe that we've been to so many times in search of filling, not to say Western, food.
oh well, i thought, shabu-shabu another time. but as i dismounted the bike a Japanese person passing by started talking to me--something that never happens here. except that i suddenly recognized her as our friend Megumi, a professional interpreter. all of a sudden i roused from my work-induced stupor and realized that Jill had set up a party with all of our friends from our so-called English Club--but i still hadn't figured out why.
Jill and i with my free balloons and birthday cake, and below with the English Club and the Hard Rock bear. from left: Kevin and Misty, Megumi, and the Marlowes.
the folks there at Hard Rock were very nice, taking pictures to make me a personalized badge and giving me a March 2007 Hard Rock birthday pin; they even had the whole place sing Happy Birthday to me. but it was something else Jill was after, something she wanted for herself. almost every time we've been there before, the staff get all the birthday boys and girls up on the little stage they have and make them do a special version of "YMCA", as in the video below:
the party having lifted my spirits immensely, i was actually feeling game to try this out when at last it had finally dawned on me that it was the whole reason we were there. unlike me, Jill isn't very into surprises for herself; she told me she wants to do her birthday at the Hard Rock so she can get up on stage, and that she wants an iPod shuffle, too. i'm inclined to make good on the latter request, since she was doubly disappointed that night: we determined we wouldn't still be here on her birthday, and for some reason they didn't even bother with the birthday YMCA. i enjoyed the whole thing anyway, sweetheart, and better luck next year...
but wouldn't you know, that wonderful woman had other plans for me, plans i should have figured out, but didn't even when they were all but happening. when i got home she told me we would be going out to dinner, which i'd half expected, but it seemed odd that we would have to leave at a certain time, as she informed me we would; after all, it's not like we can easily make reservations here. so when the appointed time came, she drove, or rather rode, us into town and turned down a side street i wasn't very familiar with. suddenly the penny dropped and i figured out that she'd found the awesome shabu-shabu restaurant we'd been to our first week here. but we kept on going and turning until we came right back out by the Hard Rock Cafe that we've been to so many times in search of filling, not to say Western, food.
oh well, i thought, shabu-shabu another time. but as i dismounted the bike a Japanese person passing by started talking to me--something that never happens here. except that i suddenly recognized her as our friend Megumi, a professional interpreter. all of a sudden i roused from my work-induced stupor and realized that Jill had set up a party with all of our friends from our so-called English Club--but i still hadn't figured out why.
Jill and i with my free balloons and birthday cake, and below with the English Club and the Hard Rock bear. from left: Kevin and Misty, Megumi, and the Marlowes.
the folks there at Hard Rock were very nice, taking pictures to make me a personalized badge and giving me a March 2007 Hard Rock birthday pin; they even had the whole place sing Happy Birthday to me. but it was something else Jill was after, something she wanted for herself. almost every time we've been there before, the staff get all the birthday boys and girls up on the little stage they have and make them do a special version of "YMCA", as in the video below:
the party having lifted my spirits immensely, i was actually feeling game to try this out when at last it had finally dawned on me that it was the whole reason we were there. unlike me, Jill isn't very into surprises for herself; she told me she wants to do her birthday at the Hard Rock so she can get up on stage, and that she wants an iPod shuffle, too. i'm inclined to make good on the latter request, since she was doubly disappointed that night: we determined we wouldn't still be here on her birthday, and for some reason they didn't even bother with the birthday YMCA. i enjoyed the whole thing anyway, sweetheart, and better luck next year...
3 comments:
Happy Birthday Jay! I'm sorry I didn't write you sooner. Sounds like it was great though.
-k8
アホみたい！
I want the iPod, yes, the dancing to the YMCA on stage with the Japanese Hard Rock crew...no. Nice try, though...I still love you.
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