...No luck at all

My mother had a saying, "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." There is much evidence in my life stories supporting the notion I inherited this trait. Here's one. Enjoy!

I love celebrations. I love parties. I love a good time. Anything can become something to celebrate. So, obviously, birthdays are well worth celebrating in my book. It doesn't matter the #, they are all occasions to be marked as fait acompli! we made it another year! hooray!

I married Mr. Opposite of me (in many ways) especially in the celebrate birthdays arena. He does NOT like celebrating his birthday because he does NOT like the idea of getting old. Even more so than most people. Whatever. I was not happy with the idea that he would be by himself on his birthday with no one in NY to make a fuss for his birthday. The fact that he was probably thrilled with this prospect was of no interest to me.

I set out on a mission to have a favorite dessert secretly delivered to him. After running into difficulties at the hotel getting assistance in this endeavor I resorted to Plan B. The entire time during his stay there he has repeatedly told me of a deli he had lunch at daily. Hubby is nothing if not consistent. Over various conversations, I gleaned that it's across the street from their job site, he went every day with his co-worker who always got the soup of the day, the waitresses already knew them by name and one of them was named Anne. So, how many deli's could there be in this small town where they were working? I googled it and came up with 4 in the general vicinity of where the site was. I wasn't taking him literally when he said across the street (I should have) and I started calling until on the 3rd call I found the one with a waitress named Anne. She got on the phone and we were able to confirm the 2 men did go there every day and which one hubby was. I tell her his birthday is coming up and I wanted to do something special. She put me on with the owner. He didn't know quite what we could get for him because according to the owner hubby doesn't eat much (understatement of the year- if you look up picky eater in the dictionary, its a picture of him). We got a laugh when from Miami I was able to tell him the main meals that he orders over and over, I even got the condiments and the sides right. So, back to dessert. We settled on 4 over sized red velvet cake cupcakes that were also the owners favorites and he assured me they were aMAYZing. I tell him if they want to take a picture, sing him Happy Birthday whatever, they want to embarrass him a little. He assures me that " (they'll) do him good." Perfect.
I tell a few people about it here and of course there were the naysayers predicting he wouldn't eat there that day. Naysayer #1 being our son, 17. Whatever.
I try to get a hold of the co-worker but as I don't have his # because everyone just uses cell phones. The other drawback was I only knew his 1st name, no last name. So I start with the hotel. I called his room on 3 separate occasions, he wasn't there. I call the work office in the city he's originally from and actually make it as far as the division he works in. I tried to get to a secretary or close co-worker to get his cell # but had to leave a message which probably never got delivered and I never got a call back.
So, Bday get here. It's 12:45. I know he goes to lunch 12ish (consistent, remember) so I figure he'll get the cupcakes soon. I call to wish him a happy birthday and he tells me he just got back from lunch. I tell him I was glad I didn't interrupt work and wait...nothing. I think, SOB! he didn't eat there. So, I ask and he tells me all about going to ANOTHER deli that we had gone to when we were up there last year. I started laughing. So, you didn't go across the street. And he actually boasts - in the 2 months I've been here this is only the 3rd time I've been someplace else. I'm still laughing.
Me: Great, babe. Now I need you to go across the street and have dessert.
Him: Huh?
Me: You heard me, go across the street. Thank Anne and Ronnie and have dessert.
Him: What did you do?
Me: Never you mind. Just go.
Him: By myself?
Me: No, take whoever you had lunch with
Him: Ok, - hey co-worker, don't sit down!- I'll call you back.

MIL calls me and asks how the surprise went. I tell her the story and she starts laughing hysterically. So, did he go? He's there now I tell her.

He calls me back. The cupcakes were AMAZING!
At least there's that.