A Note from Clint: The Best Birthday Ever

Clint here: I don't blog, and I don't know that I've heard many 40th birthdays described in glowing terms before. But I guess there are exceptions to most rules, and my entry to the world of the middle-aged would be one...

So Sarah and I had talked about going somewhere memorable for the occasion. At one point Cabo was bandied about, but I didn't want to spend the effort and time to travel to to Cabo San Lucas and not dive (Sarah's ear drums are broke and out of warranty). Navy life with 4 boys under the age of 8 being what it is, we'd settled (I thought) on leaving our children at home and doing a combined 15th Anniversary/40th B-day trip to Nashville to see the CMA's in November. Which was a blast. In the meantime, however, Sarah and sis-in-law Katie (in on the plot) stated they wanted to take the kids to Nashville to see the Opry Hotel lights and other assorted Christmas sights, so they planned a joint Cresap/Hale Nashville excursion for this past weekend, and rented a house in support of said plan.

Now, I'll be the first person to admit to being less-than-sensitive to wifely non-verbal signals (especially the sneaky ones that aren't intended to send a signal) but it was obvious she had something planned. So when she announced on Thursday night that the Hales weren't going, (which Katie confirmed with a dramatic "I'm eight months pregnant and too tired, so I'll stay here and watch your kids" - which makes zero sense) it just confirmed for me that something was up. But there was no way I was going to complain about getting another no-kids weekend away, and I certainly didn't see any benefit to prying into her "plan", which, incidentally, suffered from a serious lack of details, so I kept quiet. And off we went early Friday afternoon, with "dinner reservations" in Nashville at 5:00pm.

We made good time, and pulled into the parking garage in downtown Nashville at 4:40. As I turned into the entrance, I got a quick glance at a red-haired woman, facing away from me, on the corner. More than a passing resemblance to Jessica, but this is Nashville, she's in Arizona, and I just had the one glance. So I didn't think much of it. I parked and we walked down to the long line outside the restauarant, and as we did so, Tyler called me. And proceeded with a very bizarre series of questions about AK-47's. I noticed that as soon as Tyler called, Sarah got a call as well. At this point I got a little suspicious... especially as Sarah left me in the line to go "check" on our reservation, from which she returned and announced that it had been lost and they'd recommended another place down the street.

As suggested, we walked down 2nd Ave to the Riverside Grill, and as we walked in I immediately noticed someone that looked like Robyn standing next to the pool table in the corner. However, when the person that looked like Robyn (Robyn being in Colorado, so this couldn't be her) saw me glance at her and then giggled and ducked behind the corner, I realized that it really WAS Robyn. And that meant it actually was Jessica standing on the street corner, and that the awkward telephonic distraction of Tyler's meant he was in on it too. And that it was probably too much coincidence that the people who looked just like Ike and Chris and Kristen standing around the corner with the Tyler, Jessica and Robyn look-alikes weren't actually Ike, Chris, Kristen, Tyler, Jessica and Robyn. I mean, what would the chances of that be???

So for my 40th Birthday, the greatest group of friends in the world rearranged their hectic December schedules, pawned off their children, and flew from Colorado, Utah and Arizona to Nashville to surprise me and spend 48 hours sitting around talking. True, there was some eating out, and a Civil War battlefield in there somewhere, and an aborted attempt to get within walking distance of the Opryland Hotel, but mostly it was just a bunch of friends sitting around talking. It is a rare gift to be possessed of a friend with whom, even after years of living in different states and separate lives, there is no distance; with whom, when you are reunited, the relationship returns as strongly and effortlessly as it ever was when you first became acquainted. It is a rare gift to find one, and I've been blessed with six. Thanks, guys, for giving me the best 40th Birthday anyone ever had. This one was a keeper.

-Clint

PS - Enjoy the sentiment while it lasts. This took about a decade of emotional sensitivity out of me. Not sure where I found it but there ain't any left where it came from.

PPS- The tissues are on the side table, Ike.

PPPS - If you are arranging a surprise trip for someone, and they say "No, Cabo would be too hard for just a weekend", and the alternative is Tennessee in December, you ASK AGAIN!