Catch up on Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 before joining our Palms Kingpin Suite party.
A Slow Saturday Morning
Saturday morning, okay later morning, early afternoon, I am feeling my age. I awake to a note left by my wife telling me she went down to get some breakfast so I get ready, and head downstairs to the cafe. As I am arriving, some of our group is leaving. They point me in the direction of where the group is sitting.
Nobody Knows Mark
As I approach the table, my momma is leaving. I ask her where my dad is and she tells me he isn’t feeling very well. I ask her if she knows who that is sitting with Donna and she says she was introduced to him. Again, I ask her if she KNOWS who he is and she says she does not.
Mark and I have been friends since I was 19 and he had traveled home with me to visit my family before. She is shocked to say the least. Everyone is coming and going and eating to best fit their schedules and whatever they have planned or want to do for the day. This group is so diverse, but everyone is so self-sufficient and seems that everyone is getting along and getting to know each other.
Donna and I sit and chat with Mark for quite a while before he heads off to take a nap. Donna and I play a few slots before heading up to take naps ourselves. We just can’t party like rock stars anymore.
Blindfolded
This time I awake from my nap to an empty room and find a note telling me she had some things to take care of. Ummmm, what more could there possibly be! It is quite a while before she comes back to the room. Evidently mum is still the word as she doesn’t elaborate on where she has been.
She does say there has been a slight change in plans so I need to get up and get ready for the night. The night? It is only like 3:30pm. But I do like the Commander says and get ready, as does she. It is just about 4 now and she places her scarf around my eyes like a blindfold.
Oooooo, I do not like this. What is worse than being blindfolded? Being blindfolded and walking? Being blindfolded, walking, and getting on an elevator? Remind me to tell you one day about my fear or total dislike of elevators.
Since my wife already knows that story, she leaves the blindfold off when I promise to focus on her and not pay attention to where we are or where we are going. I am trying not to look around, just look at her, counting on her to not lead me astray or make me look stupid. When we stop, I realize we are getting on yet another elevator.
Okay now I am blindfolded, walking, just rode another elevator and have no idea where I am or where I am going. Donna is kind enough to walk slowly and guides pretty well once I remind her I can’t see so she needs to talk as she walks. Did I mention she has packed a suitcase and is dragging it along with us?
It is not a very long walk and I hear a door open. Suddenly, I am hearing TV noise and she is removing my blindfold.
The Palms Kingpin Suite Reveal
WHOA, I think I said it outloud as well as thought it. I am just inside the door, in front of me is a full blown bar, to my right is a pool table and to my left 2 bowling lanes. Floor to ceiling windows line the two walls across from me. People are yelling “surprise!”
I begin to look around and now see a few faces. I check out the bar, and the bowling area, and then move to the pool table where John and Laura are in the thick of a game. Chris is showing me the bedroom, gigantic bedroom behind the wall, where the pool table is.
The bedroom has huge windows with amazing views and a mind blowing bathroom. I can barely take it all in when he tells me this is not even the master bedroom, WHAT!!!! As we walk back out to the main room, he points across the bowling lanes and says the master is over there.
I head that way to check it out. Donna has put our suitcase in this room and is sticking a note on the door to keep people out of the room. I return to the main room where there are 7 TVs with the Husker game on, 7, did you get that, 7 TVs. This is amazing.
Mingling and Watching the Game
I want to watch the game so badly, but I don’t want to be rude to my guests, so I do my best to mingle while trying to watch the game. I remember bowling at some point, eating and drinking throughout the night, and lots and lots of people everywhere.
I later found out that the suite was for a surprise party for me on Saturday night, but once Donna discovered the Husker game was at 4 and not going to be over in time for us to get back to the surprise party, she invited everyone who wanted to come early to the suite and watch the game with me.
So around 7, just as the game was getting over more and more people arrived. I did my best to spend time with each and every person there, as it meant the world they made the trip for my birthday. I did a shot with my brother and sisters; Scott, Melanie, Michelle and I always do a shot of something when the 4 of us are together, this time I believe it was Fireball.
Chewbacca Crashes the Party
Sometime around 8 or 9, in through the suite door walks Chewbacca! I knew right away it was Lumm. That dude wore that wookie costume all night! He had a speaker to play wookie sounds and a straw to enable him to drink all night long.
I remember being upset because Kerri was missing out on the party and my mom and dad were not here. Come to find out, my dad had taken some medication he should not have, and he knew better, and had to be taken to urgent care. Well, mom didn’t want to go alone, so Kerri went with them.
I remember thinking more than once that Deb and her new boyfriend needed to get a room, and not our room! I just mingled around, taking it all in and trying to spend time with each and every person there. I don’t remember many details, but I know I was overwhelmed, so forgive me if I left out things you remember (you can always leave comments on the blog here to things you remember.)
Guarding the Wookie Costume
As the night wore on, slowly people started saying their goodbyes and heading out. A couple people helped Donna clean up a bit as I sat and chatted with Lumm, he was pretty wasted by this time. Eventually it was just Donna, me, and yep you guessed it, Lumm.
I kept trying to walk him towards the door, but he kept wanting another drink. Then he was ready to leave, but wanted me to carry his wookie costume. I desperately search for a bag to put the costume in to no avail. I finally got him out the door with the promise to guard the costume with my life until the next day. And that was all she wrote for that night, whew.
Up next: cleanup, the Broncos game, and saying our goodbyes, in Chapter 5.