Happy Birthday to our friend R (story time)

The guy making clay figurines - we got R the woman figurine on the top.
R's birthday lunch, yum! (Except for the duck tongue we ordered by accident)
The lunch gang, minus G (on her way) and me (behind the camera) See AB's little head peeking out from behind K's shoulder?
AB loves her bunny!

A little story for you:

Yesterday was our friend R's birthday! The day before, her husband asked me for advice about where to buy a cake, and where to take her for dinner, etc. I knew that R likes my cakes, so I offered to make one for her. The plan was that her husband (T) would send me a text message when they were on their way home from dinner, and I would run the cake downstairs and put it in their apartment. T also asked if I would mind taking some flowers downstairs, if he put them outside the door to my apartment. Of course I agreed.

I suggested that they go to Lapis Lazuli for dinner, which is only about a 20 minute walk from where we live. They drove, so their ride home should have been even speedier, even with traffic.

I figured they would get home around 7:30. So, around 6:45 I headed home from work, and on the way home, I found my daughter and her nanny playing outside. Some of our neighbors were playing tennis and their kids were outside too, so I went over to say hi, being certain that I still had plenty of time. I started home to prepare the whipping cream to frost the cake, and got a text message that said "going home." I wrote back "go slowly!" and ran up to my apartment to finish the cake. When we got to the door, I noticed that there were no flowers there, and I asked Ayi where the flowers were. She said, "what flowers?" I figured that T must have given R the flowers before dinner, and set about working on the cake.

I ran downstairs quickly and put the cake in their apartment. I looked around for a good place to put it and finally settled on the end table, right near the front door. When I got home, I texted T back that the cake was all set, but that there were no flowers. He wrote "4th floor?," and since I live on the 5th floor, I wrote back as much and said that I was on my way right now to run down to find them. I flew out my door in my sock feet and ran down one flight of stairs, expecting to grab a bouquet of flowers and be all set. But no. There was not one, not two, but THREE absolutely ENORMOUS flower arrangements and one smaller bunch of flowers (very cute). The first thing after "oh my goodness, HOW am I going to get all these flowers downstairs before they get home???" -- remember, the restaurant was less than 1.5 miles away -- was, "what did MB (the real 4th floor resident) think when she got home and saw all these flowers outside her door?" I rang her doorbell to see if she was there so I could explain and also hoping she might be able to help me with the flowers, but she wasn't home. The arrangements were seriously so big that I could not carry more than one at a time!

I grabbed the small bunch and one of the arrangements, and took the elevator down to the second floor as fast as I could. I didn't even bother to turn on the lights, I just raced around trying to figure out where to put the flowers. I ran back to the elevator and went up to get the rest of the flowers. I put one on the floor in the elevator and carried the other, and placed them as quickly as I could. I put one on the coffee table, one on the dining table, and then I thought that it would be nice to put one of them in the bedroom so that the surprises would continue the further into the apartment that she got. I ran into the bedroom but couldn't find a good place for the flowers - the arrangement was too big for the dresser - it was leaning against the wall and I was afraid it might fall. I suppose I could have put it ON the bed, but I didn't think of that at the time. I just found another place in the main room for the last arrangement, and got ready to leave. I figured they would be walking through the door any second!

I looked at the last arrangement and decided to spin it around to make sure it was the "front" of it that was facing the door. I noticed that all the arrangements had bows on them, so I went to turn them so that the bows were facing the right way. At the last minute, I decided to flip on the lights to admire my handiwork. I'm so glad I did because with the lights on I could see that there were white footprints ALL OVER THE APARTMENT!!!!!

The apartment across the hall from R and T's is being renovated and there was fine white dust all over the landing and stairs because of it. I hadn't even thought about it as I ran around in my sock feet. It was SO BAD. Every single step I took was marked with a very clear white footprint. I tried rubbing the footprints with my socks but there was no way they were going to be cleaned up that easily.

I headed for the elevator one more time and took my socks off on the way up. I grabbed my mop and a pair of slippers and headed back down. I was laughing so hard that I was crying, imagining what R and T would think if A) they arrived home and their absolutely immaculately kept apartment was covered in white footprints or B) if they walked in the door and found me in there, mopping the floor!

I ran back in to their apartment, managed to mop up all the footprints, and get out before they came home. Whew! I went back upstairs and told Ayi the story through my giggles and tears, and then went on the balcony to see if R and T's car was home. It was! I must have made it by bare seconds (max 2 minutes)!!! Wow!