November 2, 2007 - Susan’s Surprise
Ever since my birthday, Susan had been telling me that her gift to me was going to be delivered at the Oakland UPS pickup location on Friday, 11/2. Furthermore, on that Friday, she reminded me that I had to get home at 530pm at the latest so we could go pick up my gift. I assured her it would be fine.
Of course, we had a last minute problem that kept me at work until 6pm. I knew that Susan wouldn’t be happy, but I figured the UPS pick up place closed at 7pm, so I figured we could still make it. I called Susan to tell her I’d be late, and a few minutes later, with her brother laughing in the background, she told me that we weren’t going to get a package at all. We were going to the airport.
So at that point I realized the answers to two questions I had harbored - first, why she didn’t have the package delivered to her school and second, how she knew, that far in advance, that we’d need to “pick up” the package on 11/2.
I arrived home, threw everything down, climbed in Susan’s brother’s car, and we hit the road.
Thanks to some favorable traffic and skillful driving, we still managed to make our 730 flight…to Vegas. (Once I realized we were catching a flight, I kind of figured it would be to Vegas, since Susan is very aware that I absolutely love Vegas). In the security line, the TSA checker pointed out that my drivers license was expired and that this was going to be a problem. I convinced her to let me through, but realized it would be a problem on the way back.
We got on the flight, landed, and I had a few more questions. Did we have a hotel room? Were we going to rent a car? Did my brother know about this? He and I had discussed a potential Vegas trip next weekend…an idea that Susan seemed (understandably) not thrilled about.
Susan told me to find the taxi line. So we headed over to it, only for Susan to say that she needed a bathroom pit stop before we got into the taxi line. I sat down and figured I’d call my brother to ask him if the DMV had sent me a new license and to tell him about Susan’s surprise.
A few seconds later, my brother and his girlfriend showed up. So that’s why he told he me had to check his work schedule when I asked him about making a Vegas trip (my brother loves Vegas just as much as I do, so that alone was odd). Susan then reappeared grinning at me.
That started a weekend of some fancy eating. Friday night dinner was at Craftsteak (my second time). This time, with 4 people, I suggested ordering only 3 steaks and some sides. We got a good variety of meat with different textures: a 16 oz rib eye, 10 oz hangar, and 8 oz Kobe flat iron. Sides were the lobster bisque, sweet potato puree, and spinach. For dessert, we got sort of lucky in a way. Craftsteak happened to run out of 2 vegetables we had wanted (spinach was our third choice), and both of the desserts that we had ordered (a chocolate soufflé and a roasted quince). The lucky part was that the manager came over, apologized, and said that we could order any desserts at all, for free. I’ve never had someone actually give me a blank check on the dessert menu. I couldn’t believe it – it became one of those good conscience/bad conscience scenes on TV, with a mature mini Chris sitting on one shoulder (”Don’t order more than you should eat!”), and the immature, gluttonous mini Chris sitting on the other (”Hand them the menu and say “yes”!). The manager and server made it easier on us by automatically ordering us the ice cream/sorbet sampler platter, a pumpkin cheesecake, and a chocolate cake. I figured that it would be pretty embarrassing to either order food that we couldn’t finish, or to get ill because of too much “free” dessert. So we stuck with the desserts they got us, but chose some fancy teas to wash it down.
The rest of the eating for the weekend was a little less eventful, except a few moments of distress at the sushi buffet the following night (pounding sushi really fast can be painful).
Other notes for the weekend
- Andrew’s girlfriend couldn’t lose.
- Every time I played something, I jumped to a profit…and then slowly sank down. Finally I got smarter and played for shorter spurts, slowly clawing some money back
- Susan had an impressive, profitable 2.5 hour stint at a craps table; a table where a dealer trumpeted the obvious fact that Susan is a lot better looking than I am.
Thanks Susan!