No Storm Warning

A funny thing happened on my way to play poker.

On Saturday night, I was invited over to Marc's to play poker with a group of his friends. I've joined them for this manly tradition of card, pizza and beer once or twice before. The Intended had a girl's night with some teacher friends so I got my bag of coins and showed up.

Well, things didn't go as planned. As I walked in the front door, the first thing I saw was a camera aimed at me. I registered that Emily was behind it. And then I saw black-and-white balloons. And then I realized there were lots of people in the living room--all looking at me. And as my eyes made it around the room, I saw that My Intended was also there. Weird. I really didn't know what was going on here. If they yelled "Surprise!," I missed it because of my thick daze. So I just said, "Hey, everybody..."

Of course, I realized quickly that I'd been tricked and this was some party for me. But, honestly, it took me several seconds to realize what the party was for. I knew it wasn't my birthday, but I just couldn't register why I'd been surprised. And then it clicked: It was my wedding shower (or as we call these occasions for men, it was my STORM.)

The theme of the party was baseball. Everyone had on their favorite team colors and apparel (I luckily was wearing my Sox hat.) Mark made a baseball diamond table cloth. Charissa made baseball cookies. The streamers and balloons were White Sox white and black.

One big surprise was that Best Man Doug was hooked up via computer camera so I got to say a live hi to him, his wife and daughter. This was just one of the many great touches the group put on this party. I was touched.

We had a lot of fun. I got to see friends I haven't seen in so long. We laughed a lot. We got great, generous gifts (more on that tomorrow. There's one you have to see to believe!) And My Intended, Marc, Charissa and I ended the night with a rousing game of Yahtzee! (Marc won.)

When I told Designer Doug here at work this morning about my surprise Man-Shower, he said, "Well, that's better than being surprised by a man in your shower."

Too true.