I am going to get so many hits from Google and so many disappointed Googlers based on the title of this blog!!!
Wednesday night my husband put together a "surprise" dinner. He was very clever about planning it. He called me on Saturday morning and said, "You know, I've been thinking, I really should get your friends' numbers." Now, me being the naive, dumb babe that I am...it never occurred to me that this might have something to do with my birthday which was seven days away!!! The locale was still kept from me and Vicky was the most surprised because all week she thought I really didn't know about it. Fortunately Vicky has a great "day job" because her acting abilities would probably not sustain her as she casually said on the phone on Wednesday, "OK, then I guess I'll see you later this week!" Not terribly convincing, Vicky!
Our entourage of three couples trekked to Fort Lauderdale in Stacy's blue "fagmobile" (that's what she calls her minivan, so please don't Imus me about the use of that word...for which, by the way, I have STILL not forgiven Burke from Grey's.) I still didn't know the locale and when we pulled into a strip mall and passed a Walgreens, I got nervous. I had visions of us buying booze at the Walgreens liquor store and standing in the parking lot drinking it from paper bags.
The valet parking tipped me off that we were probably safe from the "booze in the paper bag" surprise party. I was then escorted into another realm, a world unto itself....Cafe Martarano. This place is so cool that it doesn't NEED a website, so I just linked to some reviews. I had heard about it from my husband who has been there frequently for business dinners and was dying to go sometime. We walked in and were enveloped by the eerie neon-ish light. The tiny restaurant seats maybe 50 people, doesn't take reservations and people giggle when they are fortunate enough to only have to wait an hour (on a Wednesday night at the utterly uncool...remember, we arrived in a blue minivan, so we kind of define uncool...hour of 6:30 p.m.)
There are TVs everywhere showing scenes from The Godfather, Goodfellas, etc. As Donnie (Vicky’s husband, a MAJOR movie buff) looks up at a screen only to see a topless woman. His jaw dropped and Vicky deadpanned, “Boobs, movies and food…Donnie’s happy!”
My husband ordered for everyone and the food just kept coming with every dish being better than the last. The lobster was the best I have ever tasted. The pastas were all freshly made. Even the cappuccino was incredible. But the best part was the friends…laughing, talking and just being together.
And there is a fourth item (besides the boobs, movies and food)… music. A wise man (Nicholas from A Gentleman's Domain) paraphrased this quote to me:
"Extraordinary how potent cheap music is...." Noel Coward
And did we ever prove it that night! Now, when we (I say we even though four of the six of us were three or more years younger than me) were in our partying days, DJ’s were spinning records. Now it’s a young guy with a MacBook, iTunes and a playlist! The music was from our era, every song prompting, “OK, name the artist…what year was it.” It was a little annoying when I would say, “Oh, this takes me back to college” and the others would chime in, “This takes me back to high school!”
The place is noisy and boisterous and Stacy and I sang along with “It’s too late” by Carole King with every ounce of music in our bodies! At one point, “Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gaye was playing and I found myself swaying to the music, eyes closed thinking of my old boyfriend Chris who was doing all of my sexual healing in 1983. I looked over and Michael had his eyes closed, obviously in his own reverie about his memories of sexual healing. Then Vicky said, “This song reminds me of my grandmother!” Talk about a mood-killer!!! Seems that Vicky (who was a small child in 1983, I think) was in the car with her old Cuban grandmother when “Sexual Healing” came on…Abuela was horrified and the kids were mortified.
There is this strange phenomenon that happens when we go out…the more Stacy drinks, the funnier I get! She laughs at everything I say. And then I start laughing at her laughing at me. I laughed so much that my face hurt! Here’s me and Stacy laughing at dinner earlier this month:
Stacy also gets very grandiose ideas when she drinks (and we are talking 2 drinks…it doesn’t take much)…she wanted to get “Tapestry” from my iPod, no she wanted to download everything on my iPod…that night. She was going to spend the night at my house. But really, it was too early to go home…we should go out!!! Of course, we went back to our house, had another glass of wine and called it a night. But it was fun thinking that we might have it in us to party like it was 1999!
My husband gets big-time husband points for putting together a phenomenal evening!!!
Di
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