Friday, January 7, 2011

Surprising Friends

Surprising Our Friends

We have some friends in NY who we keep in contact with and try to see whenever we go up there.

I was going up for a Bar Mitzvah and I was staying with one of them.  My wife couldn’t join me so I went alone.

I decided to surprise the other friend on Sunday, before I left for home.

I enlisted the help of her daughter Jessie, whom some of you may remember from the “Bloomingdales Makeover” story.

We set up a plan whereby Jessie would tell her mother she wanted her to go shopping with her, that Sunday Morning.  Jessie would meet her at my friend’s home and bring breakfast.

Jessie picked me up and we drove to the Bagel store.  We picked up Bagels, cream cheese, lox and whitefish salad.  We drove to her mother’s home.

We entered through the lower level door.  Jessie went up the stairs to the kitchen carrying the cream cheese, fish, etc.  I held back at the bottom of the stairs.

Jessie entered the kitchen.  Her mom was waiting for her.  “Lets eat” her mom said.

“Oh damn, I forgot to the bring the bagels” Jessie said.

“But I didn’t” I said and came up the stairs.

She let out a little scream and then was speechless.  We had a good laugh and a good visit for a few hours and then they drove me to the airport.

This past January (2010), we had another Bar Mitzvah to go to.  Actually, the sister of the boy who had the Bar Mitzvah 3 years earlier.  My wife, I and our 7 year old Grandchild attended.

We didn’t tell either of our friends we were coming.  I never do anything easy.  We were going to surprise them.

Again I contacted Jessie to make arrangements to surprise her mother and contacted Ellen, Mark’s wife (the crazy guy from the “Regina’s School Daze” story) to arrange a surprise for him.

First Cindy, Jessie’s Mom.

The three of us flew into NY and rented a car.  We drove out to the hotel and contacted Jessie.  She had arranged to meet her mother at her mother’s house and told her they would have dinner with together.

We drove to the house.  We slowly drove by the house and parked at the far end of her property hoping she wouldn’t see us.  Our plan was to have our Grandson ring the bell and say he had a message for her from Florida.

As we drove by and parked, Cindy came down her stairs and happened to glance out her window.   She saw the car drive by and park at the end of her property. 

Cindy lives on a very quiet street and it would be very unusual for someone she doesn’t know to park on her property.  She became very frightened.

“We’re going to be robbed” she said.  “Someone is coming to rob us” Her daughter tried to calm her down.  Cindy ignored her.

She went to the window and saw our Grandson get out of the car.  Not recognizing him she was puzzled.  Why was a kid coming to see her?

My wife and I exited the car.  It was dark, Cindy did not recognize us and she became more puzzled.  Why did the robbers have a child with them?  Was this a ruse to get into her house?

 She went to her door with her daughter and stepped out.  A shocked expression appeared on her face (I seem to have that effect).  She finally figured it out.

We all went inside and Jessie took the opportunity to give us some good news.  She, her husband (watch for something on the wedding in the future), her mother and we all went to dinner.

At the end of the dinner, we told Cindy to come with Jessie and spend the day with us at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.

She told us she couldn’t because of a Seminar she was attending with Jessie that day. 

Turns out the Seminar was a ruse made up by Jessie and me to get Cindy to our hotel the next day.  We spent a very nice day together.

The only difficulty was driving in Manhattan.  I hadn’t done that in a while and the traffic was horrendous.  I was honking my horn at some delusional half-witted driver in front when Cindy pointed out a sign next to us.  It said: Honking your horn is subject to a fine.  This is Manhattan, everybody honks their horn.  What is Bloomberg thinking?

The next day it was Mark’s turn.

Mark knew we were out of town, but thought we were in North Carolina for a Bar Mitzvah there.

Ellen had told Mark that they were going to the movies with some friends from New Jersey who were staying at a hotel in Westbury.  That was her way of justifying going to our hotel.

Ellen had also invited another friend of ours, Rene and Eileen who knew this was going to be a surprise for Mark.

The time was approaching for Mark and Ellen to come to the hotel to pick up their New Jersey friends.

Our friends Rene and Eileen showed up, we hid off the lobby waiting for Mark and Ellen.

Ellen walked in the door, Mark was parking the car. And came in a few minutes later

We sent my grandson out to talk to Mark.  He walked up to Mark, tapped him and said “Are you Glaser?”

Marked looked down, didn’t know who my grandson was, and growled “Yeah, who are you kid?  “I’m not your father?”

Now you have to know Mark to appreciate his comment and how off the wall it was.  Mark as I said in a previous post is a crazy guy.  He is often sarcastic and off the wall.  He has been this way since I’ve known him (47 years); age has not diminished his personality.

My grandson was a little flustered by this, and starting pointing to where we were hiding.  We all came out and I must say Mark was more than a little flustered and amazed to see us, mission accomplished.

All in all, a successful weekend.  We had fun at the Bar Mitzvah, I got to harass my cousin (the mother from the wedding in a previous post), and to surprise our friends.

The only bad part was IT WAS FREEZING IN NY WITH A WINDCHILL OF 0. 

I don’t care who it’s for, we are not going to New York in the winter.  Plan your affairs in the warmer times; we’ll come.

Maybe you’ll be the ones we surprise.                        



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