No Teases Left – It’s Showtime!

I left you last with a tease … this post will help guide to where the mocker leads today.  ¶ I’ve pulled a few gags on my bride in the past twenty-four years.  One of the gems was on her fortieth birthday when we figuratively took over a local nightclub with friends celebrating her birthday.  Birthdays are big with Bonnie, really big.  Her specialty on birthdays for our two girls begins at breakfast, goes through midday and does not end until the sun has long since left its mark on the day.  The quip that year included a mid-afternoon phone call indicating I was going to be late and please start without me.  “An emergency had come up at work requiring my presence, not to worry I will be there as soon as this problem is fixed.”  I had actually taken a half-day at work and my afternoon was spent at the Charleston International Airport where I awaited the arrival of Bonnie’s childhood friend Mary, inbound from Boston. 🙂 ¶ Upon arrival at the party I made my way in and found everyone already in a highly celebratory mood and when I found Bonnie amidst all the revelry I hugged her, said hello and slipped to the side and there was Mary standing there!  She knew immediately the wool had been pulled over her eyes and with Mary there for her party and to celebrate a weekends worth of toasts I was forgiven for the ruse. ¶ Phone calls and extremely heated texts yesterday have me completely on the edge right now as we are currently in Phase II of this new deception. ¶ Let’s first set the stage … it’s currently Thursday, the 23^rd of May, nearly 10:AM and here I sit in the bedroom of this rented apartment with my luggage on the bed.  I called Bonnie at 4:15 this morning to ensure she was awake and she was completely prepared for a morning drive to San Francisco International with Taylor and Logan alongside for a flight to Los Angeles.  She arrived at LAX approximately 8:45 this morning and I was not there to meet her and the girls. Why? The story I started yesterday morning included a network outage requiring my attention, etc., etc.  When she learned I would not be able to meet her at LAX – suffice it say the fireworks were of the type the male readers of this blog can certainly understand to be those we want to keep at an absolute minimum! ¶ I spent yesterday morning in Burbank, CA – in particular, at the Warner Brothers studio location where I met with Brian, Alyssa, Erin and Phillip, all employees of … “The Ellen” show!! ¶ We have all been invited to “The Ellen” show as guests and over the course of the past six or seven months have been engaged in regular communications with the production team putting together the story of Bonnie and Paul, highlighting our special girl’s breast cancer diagnosis, the toils, and her ultimate achievements.  ¶ The staff provided me directions to the Warner Brothers lot, the parking garage across the street, how to gain access to Studio #3, etc., etc., but I was not to inform Bonnie of this. ¶ Brian provided me a tour of this phenomenal studio, sound stage, production rooms, VIP rooms, Ellen’s office, et al yesterday where Ellen does her thing, and upon completion of this walk-around I was escorted outside on a golf cart where we were driven to a location to shoot a video of me explaining to Bonnie (as though she was there in the lens of Erin’s camera) how sorry I am not to be there today, how much I love her, how proud I am of her becoming a breast cancer survivor. ¶ This simple video shoot was extremely difficult to put together – for me anyways.  The Ellen production staff explained that during the taping Ellen herself may walk out into the audience, and ask Bonnie to the stage.  They were quite clear that this may NOT take place as well, as there are no guarantees, but under no circumstances did they want me to let the cat out of the bag. ¶ So now the girls are being chauffeured to Burbank in a Mercedes Benz limo with a full day of dealing with those same individuals I had met the day before. ¶ This entire process is quite surreal – believe me! ¶ The Ellen show has arranged for a driver who will arrive at my residence this afternoon at 3:30 to take me to Burbank where I will be met by Brian who will surreptitiously shuttle me to the green room where I can watch the show being taped.  I suspect at some point this afternoon I will appear on the stage where Bonnie, Taylor, Logan and Ellen sit and I can only simply imagine how fast my heart will be racing when this event takes place.  Again, there is no guarantee this will happen, and I I’m convinced my videotaping session from yesterday to be the reason.  I felt tight, strained and unnatural while discussing how I feel about the woman I have not seen for five weeks, yes, the same woman I have lied to about not being front and center in baggage claim when she and the girls arrived earlier this morning. ¶ Man, I hope this works …¶ Regardless, I will be with all my girls later this afternoon and staying at the Sheraton Universal City, courtesy of The Ellen Show, in Universal City, CA this evening.  Saturday morning a limo will then return us all to LAX for a flight back to SFO and a Memorial Day weekend back, one in which we will NEVER forget, in our home along the river in Petaluma.  I really got beat up yesterday, and deservedly so … fingers crossed that it was all worth it! ¶ No teases left … least not for now.

Keeping her closer than ever!

Love,

♥

Paul