Enjoying the Journey

One of my best friends, SJ, is about to turn 30. Infact she is turning 3o during the week that I will be moving away.

Because she is so dear to me (and I REALLY mean that) and because it is a milestone birthday, it was important to me to throw her a real sweet birthday party, that was right up her alley.

So last night 9 of her closest friends gathered together to celebrate her life and what she means to each of us.

We were all dressed up and ready to go to this fabulous tea house called Gingerbread Gables. This victorian mansion was set up with quaint little tables with bouquets of roses on each of them. The high tea dinner included: potato leek soup, salad, lemon scones, a fruit melange, two types of tea and dessert. The plan was perfect and each of her friends had RSVP'd with elegant gifts in hand.

And then, the storm hit! Quite literally. A huge storm whipped through the town and took out all the power. And the elegant tea house with the beautiful wrapped around porch and tiny victorian china went dark. I have no idea how long it took for the power to be returned to that quaint house because after almost 2 hours of no electricity, the owner officially decided that we could not have our tea party!

Oh, what a disappointment it was! All that effort to set up a memory making birthday party for my sweet friend, gone with rain and lightening.

Because she was in the car with me during the many phone calls from the owner of the tea house, I quickly discussed with SJ what her idea of plan B was.

Given the decision of going to another small pantry style restaurant or going to a loud and fun steakhouse, my dear friend chose MEAT. And the 9 of us, dressed in lovely outfits, changed directions and went to Outback Steakhouse.

Now this decision completely represents the kind of friend SJ is to me. You can dress her up, take her to a lovely victorian tea OR you can round up her favorite gang and laugh over a good ole piece of steak.

As we sat in the steakhouse, we laughed over great memories, fun times and the ability to be versatile and easy going. And the night out that could have been washed away with the rain, turned into a fun and wonderful birthday party.

Posted in: on Friday, July 28, 2006 at at 2:45 PM