40th +1 Surprise Party

Last night, Carlos and I joined our other family members for my cousin Paul’s 40th + 1 Surprise Birthday Party, planned by his wife Sarah.

Since there was a Saints game, Paul was supposed to watch the Saints game at an undetermined place and then go to my cousin’s (his sister’s) house at 7:30 pm. The plan fell through when Paul called Suzanne’s husband Steve, asking Steve if he could come over to watch the game – at 2 pm. When people started showing up for the Surprise Party portion of the evening, Paul finally figured it out.

Though it wasn’t a surprise at all, we had fun. My family is quite loud and boisterous. Add in that Sarah was fixing very strong Hurricanes.


Some choice conversation quotes:

My mom introducing Nick (half Filipino) to Carlos (originally from Honduras): “Nick, have you met Carlos? Y’all have the same coloring.”

My sister Christine lamenting that part of her Mardi Gras will be hard to schedule this year: “Karlie [her girlfriend] is having her uterus taken out. I guess she couldn’t wait until after Ash Wednesday.”

My cousin Andree, after hearing the above: “Hey. I had polyps on my uterus too. Cool. Let’s talk about it.”

My mom with my aunt Mary and my uncle Greg listening: “Carlos sure is getting a lot of attention from Angie [a 40-something mom of one of the young kids].”
Me: “Yea, but he’s told me that he wouldn’t know what to do with that. He said that there are too many flaps and folds down there.”
My mom with my aunt Mary and my uncle Greg listening: “Oh my Gawd, Marshall.”


My aunt Barbara at the end of the evening: “We really like Carlos. Almost as much as we like you.”
Me: “I can tell. He was surrounded by people all night. I think y’all like him more than me.”
Barbara: “Well, we do, but didn’t want to tell you that.”

Carlos, as we were driving home after I related that story to him: “It’s just that I’m the shiny new toy. It’ll blow over.”