Birthday surprise

This cutie patootie is celebrating a birthday on Monday. 


Last weekend her super duper husband planned a special surprise dinner for her in downtown Chicago with a portion of The Girls and a few of The Husbands. 


J and I headed to the city early that morning to spend the day lolly gagin' around the city. We went with only two things on our agenda.


Church at Moody.

Then dinner with The Girls.


That left a whole lot of free time in between.


Even though the options were endless, we simply enjoyed a day catching up, people watching, 

and treating ourselves.

I have a great people watching story from the day and I have worried about it all week. It is one of those stories that I fear will not translate well in print. But I'm going to give it a try.


***
After lunch, we decided to get out the laptop and check out some options for our afternoon adventure. We grabbed a table on the patio/sidewalk in the shade at Starbucks and picked up their wireless internet.


At the same time, we picked up a conversation going on at the next table. 


Two women were in the middle of what seemed to be a job interview. One lady was all dressed up in a black dress, heals and pearls. The other was in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. 


J and I pretended to go about our business, but really we were listening to their conversation. 


In the mean time, two men sat down in some extra chairs that happened to be sitting between our table and the other ladies' table. One man only stayed a short time.


The other man, stayed.


I could clearly see him from my viewpoint. He slowly drank is grande iced coffee. Appeared to be watching the people walk by and not in any hurry.


The job interview went on and on.


They talked about long term goals, employment history, the marketability of the company, the company's goals, the network of people they knew, salary and all of the "perfect" job interview topics.
They even shared a tender personal connection when they both figured out that each had lost her mom: one to bladder cancer and I couldn't hear the second lady's story.


Did I mention this interview went on and on. And yet, none of us got up and left or even started another conversation. We were afraid we would miss something.


When the ladies finally decided they would go back to their offices and do some fancy business strategy stuff, they got up and went their separate ways. 


Before they were even out of sight, the man sitting next to us, turned to us and said
"Well I think that went well."


We all busted out laughing, because we had been caught ease dropping.


So the three of us compared notes and J and I were left laughing because this guy was hilarious. He had every detail, topic and catch phrase that they used. He was rattling it all off and adding his own commentary. 


He said he had been so bored all day and this was the best entertainment he had. 


After a few questions we found out a few things about him. 


He is a stand up comic.
Lives in New York.
Was doing a four day tour in Chicago at a theater around the corner.
He had walked every direction around that part of town and was done walking.
And he had a great amount of material for his next show.


Of course, J and I did not have any clue who this guy was. So when I got home, I did a little research and figured out it was Mike Vecchionne.


His name still didn't mean anything, so I did a google search.
Well come to find out,
In 2010, Mike won the People’s Choice Award for the New York Comedy
Festival, was a semi-finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, and was selected to perform
at the prestigious Montreal Comedy Festival (New Faces). Later that year, Mike went on
to perform on the Tonight Show starring Jay Leno and shot his own Half Hour Special
for Comedy Central.


So I guess in the comic world, this guy is a big deal.


But in my world, these people are really the Big Deal!

Dinner at Francesca's in Little Italy was wonderful!

We had a long leisurely dinner. Time to catch up. We enjoyed appetizers, dinner and dessert. No one had to rush home to get their kids in bed or off to a meeting or to beat rush hour traffic. It was a great night where we just didn't worry about that stuff.

We missed the rest of the group who were miles and miles away. But as always, we love any chance we can get to spend some time with The Girls.


Happy Birthday P! I'm praying that your birthday is as special as you are!