Birthday dinner AND serenade!

Last night we went with some good friends: Sedricks, Sears & Sears, Olsons (2 of the couples we knew in NH who live here now) to my favorite locale: Central Market. Gourmet food, delectable desserts, including Gelato, and live music on weekends. We sat outside once the sun was half-way down, in shade and breeze, and listened to some classic acoustic guitar and pretty decent singing of songs like: 8-6-7-5-3-0-9, Sweet Emotion, You Say It's Your Birthday... Moments before playing the latter song, they called Ted up on stage to sing with them, as "this guy wanted to sing" to his wife. Ted would never, ever request that, even for money...it was our friend, Ryan Olson, who asked the band to do that; Ryan is like a surrogate brother to Ted in NH and now in TX, willing to embarrass him and put him on the spot! (plus they love to 'talk smack' & sports & crazy church stories.

Our kids were in shock as was I when Ted stood up and sauntered up to the outdoor stage and faced the 100 or so folks in the audience. He knew when to come in (its quite an intro on the guitars) and he sang, albeit, in a smaller voice than the 2 lead singers, but sing he did! After a few lines he pointed to me (I videoed and will try to attach it) and then gave a farewell wave to the audience and stepped down to let the pros finish the song. It was totally unexpected and completely stunning. I am smiling thinking of it and I might venture to say it made my birthday weekend!! THAT is a tradition that needs to continue!

One other serenade moment: when Ted came home from work last night, he brought a book of piano songs from the 1970s that was amazing--in that most of the songs I haven't heard since then, but love them I did and still do because of their distinct taste & aura of an era that had so many "classics." Ted started playing away and singing to me, "You Light Up My Life" amongst others. That piano book will light up our life this summer. Maybe I can get a neighborhood concert tour for Ted. ha!