Happy Birthday Donna!

(Picture taken by our nearly 80 yr old mom... she said, "The picture is fuzzy." She snapped it - this is the result.)

Today started out as a cloudy and rainy day. I saw the date and realized it was my sister Donna's birthday. My mom was aching to go somewhere. I was too. Somewhere with out the responsibility of Al was on my mind.

It was about 10:30am when I said to my mom, come on, let's go surprise Donna at work. We'll bring her some flowers and if she can, we'll take her to lunch.

GREAT!

Off we drove to the Court House where Donna is a clerk.

On the way I needed to stop at the post office (my mom needed to mail a letter) and I needed to get to the bank.

I took the wrong turn out of our neighborhood and we missed both the post office and the bank. My little mom tried to tell me I was going the wrong way but I didn't listen.

We drove all the way to the town where Donna works and didn't see one bank that was ours. Damn!

My mom stopped at her little credit union to get some money. She was taking forever in there so I decided to call Don on her cellphone.

How our call went...

(me) "Hi Don!"

(Don) "Wait a minute."

few seconds go by and then I hear,

"Hi Sue."

I said, "Hi Don... Happy Birthday!"

Don..."Is that why you are calling?"

me.."Yes. Happy Birthday!"

Don.."Aw, that was nice."

Me.."what time do you do lunch?"

Don." 12"

me." Hey, do you have plans with your work friends?"

Don. "No."

Me. "Great. Want to go to lunch with Ma and me?"

Don. "Really? "

Me. "Ya, we're like 2 minutes from you."

Don. "Great! I'll see you at noon."

I went into the bank to check on my mom and told her the plan. She was pretty psyched.

Fortunately, it was the lunch hour so there were lots of empty spots in front of the court house. I saw Don through the window... she gave a big wave. Loads of cops were watching us through the window... it felt weird but the truck looked awesome, Brian just had it detailed for me. My ride was pimped and looked like a damn white stallion. I absolutely LOVE my truck. Anyway... getting lost in my truck, sorry about that.

Don came out and I jumped out of my truck to hug her and open the door to the back seat for her to get in.

Prancing down the stairs was a little kid from next door, only 35 years later. I couldn't believe it. He used to be part of the little gang of little kids who followed me around. I remember teaching a lot of them how to sew and make stuff out of shit we'd find around the neighborhood. Anyway, he's now a court officer.

I tried to get his picture but he ran away before I could get the camera. I was bummed. I will be back though when he least expects it and I will take his picture with me.

Anyway...

Don came out and we went out for Vietnamese food. Man, great restaurant... awesome food. Very inexpensive.

Here's a picture of Donna with Josie...