Sue's Story
How much more of this can we stand?!
First, we have THE EVENT! Now, THE PARTY! LOL! You
know how exhausted I am today? Thank goodness I
could sort of cruise at work today! <g>
Okay ... with the exception of a couple e-mails,
I have been quiet about what REALLY happened last
night! So ... are you ready? Can you handle it?!
LOL!
Whew! I'm still grinning from ear to ear. It was
a FABulous, FANtastic, FUN-filled time.
First things first, Tracey arrived EARLY! LOL!
Or so it seems. As Sis can vouch, I am not much of
a present wrapper ... so I spent much of yesterday
afternoon wrapping & rewrapping &
rewrapping some more! LOLOLOL ... But I found great
tape, didn't I, Nora! LOL! More on that later!
<g>
Tracey knocked on the door just as I was posting
to the board about seeing Nora's MacGregor Brides
#1 @ Roses here in Fredericksburg! Uh, I handed
stuff through the door for her. Did I care that her
face was turning green & her body was doing
weird contortions because she had to use the
bathroom?! <ew> Nope! LOL! No one was getting
in the apartment!
We had a lovely drive to Sheperdstown. Nora, BW
gives great directions! <g> Of course, it
helped that I knew our way for about 3/4 of the
drive ... the only thing lacking was that the trees
haven't turned colors yet. Had they been turning,
it would have been a SPECTACULAR drive!
Oh! We were barely out of Fredericksburg when I
remembered that I had forgotten Sweet Jenn's
pictures ... <sigh> ... I thought the Broads
AND Nora were gonna kill me for that blunder!
Sheperdstown is a small, quaint town with a lot
of old-fashion shops on Main Street. As we passed a
building for the college, we noticed that a street
dance was taking place! It looked like great fun.
Contra dancing is what I think it was. They had
bells attached to their legs.
We found the Yellow Brick Bank without any
problems whatsoever and found a great parking spot
close-by. We decided to walk in & scope the
place out before entering with the balloons &
cakes & presents <g> ... The hostess had
us down for 5:30!!!! LOL! I said, "Nope, it was for
6:30."
They had us in a big room across from where the
old vault is (yes, it's really an old bank). The
only bad thing was it was so dark in there. I knew
I wouldn't be able to get decent pictures :-( ...
so I didn't even try.
After Tracey and I brought in all of our
goodies, we decided to walk around until everyone
arrived (we were about a half-hour early). Tracey
actually thought Nora might be embarrassed by the
balloons! LOL! ;-)
Trace & I walked a little bit down the main
drag ... then started back for YBB ... I squinted
& saw a really kewl car behind Tracey's ... and
then I noticed the plates! Nora's here!
We went into YBB, and there she was at the bar.
We were gonna sneak up on her, but she must have
felt the stalker vibes or something! <g> Of
course, hugs all around! <VBG> We sat &
talked about things in general ... waiting ...
waiting ... waiting for the others to get there!
Finally Carolyn & Wendy arrived! <VBG>
... were they really on time?! I thought they were
late too! It was great seeing them again ---
especially Wendy --- knowing that she's gone
through so much in the past couple of months.
She had to make a call, so we again went back to
shooting the breeze. We kept waiting ... waiting
... waiting ... FOR THAT BLONDE FROM DANVILLE!
Finally, at 7:15, we decided we had better go to
the table! (only two hours after they THOUGHT we
were suppose to be there! LOL!)
Nora assured us that everything on the menu was
great, but Carolyn was in a panic when the waiter
told us that they only had one left of this dish
that she really liked. Nora made a SA comment
(Tracey remembers it!) that had us all laughing.
Shortly after settling down, Dan the Man showed up!
<VBG> He was looking mighty handsome in a
white turtle neck & sweater ... of course I
immediately gave him a hug for Sweet Jenn! (Hey, a
mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!)
Once again we started to get settled, when guess
who decided to show up?! That Blonde from Danville!
<ewg> She had her Step-M-I-L in tow &
tried to blame being late on her dh & trains
& Lancaster ... sure, Jaci, sure! LOL!
Everyone thought (keyword, THOUGHT) the party
was complete! <ewg> Jaci's M-I-L, Helen, sat
to my left. Of course I was on my best behavior
<ig> ... Jaci sat across from me & to
Nora's right ... Tracey was on Nora's left ... then
Dan, Wendy, and Carolyn.
Everyone ordered (Carolyn did a great job
listing what everyone had), we again did what we
Broads like to do best, TALK!
Actually, Jaci, being the slave-driver that she
is, put Nora to work (at her b-day party, no less!)
... she had Nora sign several books ... including
SANCTUARY for Helen. She was tickled to have
received such a fine gift from her sweet d-i-l!
<eg> ... (No, she really was!)
Finally! The food arrived! Carolyn WOLFED hers
down ... I mean, she INHALED! LOL! Heaven only
knows what would've happened had Nora wanted the
same dish. It could've been ugly! LOL! The rest of
us were half-way done when the Slut & the Lyin'
Sac of You-Know-What showed up! <ewg>
Me being me didn't tell a soul (well, except for
Nancy!) that Pat, MK, & Beth were going to be
there! I wanted to surprise everyone. Of course, I
didn't realize that by doing so, I'd be threatened
with the option of walking home (more later).
It was GREAT seeing Pat again ... she's a hoot!
And it was great FUN finally being able to meet MK
(Mary Kay McComas) --- a truly great friend of
Nora's. I think Pat planned on being later to miss
dinner. But, she's a slut ... she was starving!
LOL! So she bummed half of Nora's dinner (that Nora
was suppose to take home to BW) ... while we gave
poor MK our veggie side dish (we really didn't know
what it was made of! LOL!) ... MK finally broke
down & ordered a salad.
A little later on, Beth arrived with her friend
(I believe her name was Helen, too). The party was
complete!
After we finished dinner, it was time for the
gifts. With each gift, there was at least one card
... LOL! Almost all of the cards talked about how
"young" Nora is! <ewg> ;-)
Nora started with Beth's present ... a framed
picture of TTP ... she then went to the Slut's gift
... Carolyn described it well. What was really
funny is that we were talking about BW's salt &
pepper shakers that he had given Nora, and Pat made
a wise-acre comment about "earrings are always
better than salt & pepper shakers." Well, guess
what Nora received from Pat?! What was really great
is that Nora must have been admiring them at the
beach with Pat ... and Pat somehow managed to buy
them for her w/out Nora knowing! Pretty kewl, huh?
MK gave Nora a gorgeous necklace found by a
Jerry in a shop in Front Royal. It made me think of
HIDDEN RICHES. <VBG>
Then, time for the Broads! LOL! We mistakenly
gave Nora Jaci's gift first. LOLOLOL ... you
really, truly had to be there (wish I could've
gotten it on video), but Nora's eyes lit up when
she saw the title, 101 NIGHTS OF GRRREAT SEX ...
she & Trace then spent the next ten minutes
oohing & ahing over JUST the chapter titles!
Every now & then, Nora would point to one &
start LOLOLOLOL ... we forced her <eg> to
tear open one of the pages ... good thing it was
dark in there. Jaci's face would've attracted dogs
all around! <ewg> (from being RED ... I'm not
that mean! ;-) ... Let's just say that we have a
whole new meaning to giving a guy a back-rub &
leave it at that! LOL!
Next up was Debby's gift, which, ironically, I
had NO CLUE ABOUT! LOL! I just knew it had
something sharp because it was sticking through the
envelope. I tried to e-mail Debby to get her
permission to open it & rewrap it (honest,
really!), but I didn't, so I did the next best
thing. I wrapped it in a whole bunch of wrapping
paper. Nora immediately put Debby's pin on her coat
... she also got post-its & a card (neither
made it to me to see :-( ...
Next up ... Wendy & Carolyn's gift ... a
lovely candle and potpourri (I think) in the scent
of romance! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Then, Wym's present. A HUGE ... and I mean HUGE bag of M & Ms! I thought
Nora was going to have to beat Jaci up to keep her
away from them! But the kewlest thing was when Nora
unwrapped Wym's beany dragon (which I also didn't
know about :-( ... the look on Nora's face was
priceless! <VBG> It confirmed what I've known
all along ... she's a kid @ heart & she
believes in magic! <VBG>
The tape used was extra-heavy duty ... BIG
MISTAKE! LOL! MK finally came to Nora's rescue with
this knife! Whew! It could've gotten ugly!
Next up, Nancy & my little ole present! I
put them in a Walt Disney box! It was great seeing
Nora stick her hand in ... there were all these
flower bulbs in plastic bags ... but I guess they
felt a little weird .... Nora didn't know
what she was getting herself into! LOL! She
immediately announced that she'd share the 101
NIGHTS book with BW ONLY AFTER HE PLANTED THE
BULBS! LOL!
Finally, the combo gifts from a bunch of us ...
Trace ... Nanc ... Sis ... me ... first, Nora
started with a HUGE chocolate bar. Again, she had
to fight Jaci off! (methinks Jaci might be killed
off in a DEATH book soon! <eg> ) ... then she
opened a little book of sex quotes ... then (I love
doing this) ... she tackled a bigger box that
seemed a little heavy ...
This time Nora (I think!) tried to tackle the
heavy-duty tape with the knife! LOL! For what?! A
2-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi! <eg>
Next up was a smaller box with a little jewelry
box hidden inside. Nora opened it & found a
CHOCOLATE KISS! LOL! Hey, I would've known she
could've handle the weird & raunchy, who knows
what I would've put in there from Spencers!
<ewg>
Next up ... a box ... a saltine cracker box ...
Nora admitted to NOT liking peanut butter! Is that
Un-American or what?! LOL! Once again, she had to
dig through a bunch of padding ... to find another
jewelry box! <eg>
This time she opened it to find a necklace with
a heart that had a keyhole in it ... with a key
that had a little heart on its end ... we felt that
symbolized best what Nora has meant to all of us
... she's opened up our hearts to LOVE ... and
she's opened up our hearts to all of these
wonderful, wonderful friendships! <VBG> She
definitely is the key to our hearts! <g>
<sigh>
Now, finally, I give the signal to the staff to
bring in the cake (they were really worried that
they wouldn't bring it in at the right time! LOL!)
... it was great, because while we provided the
cake, YBB provided the sparklers! There were two
sparklers a flaring ... we all sung Happy Birthday
to Nora ... and yes, BB/Ns, you were there ... in
our hearts! <VBG>
The staff was just a tad-bit disorganized! LOL!
Methinks they weren't used to such raucous parties!
We had many, many ROTF LOAO moments ... and we
definitely spent plenty of time at our table! LOL!
We had to ask for plates ... for forks ... and for
a knife for Nora to cut the cake ...
Of course, as Nora & Carolyn already pointed
out, the cake was chocolate! <VBG> Would you
have expected anything less?! Carolyn just touched
briefly on it, but I thought Nora was going to have
to fight the Slut & the Lying Sac of
You-Know-What OFF with this HUGE knife YBB gave her
to cut the cake! Whew! They wanted the FLOWERS!
They wanted the CORNERS! It could've gotten ugly!
LOL!
After we demolished the cake (well, we did leave
a couple pieces for BW), Pat whipped out this
camera from hell! LOL! It was so dark in there that
the flash acted like a laser! Not only did it blind
US, but it also blinded Pat! LOL! She had us pose
for pictures with Nora (really had to put a gun to
our heads, too) ... and she snapped one of Nora
& Dan (which was darling) ... and a couple of
the authors ... if they turn out, she promised to
send us some! <g>
We finally pack everything up & head out
into the night (it was only around 11, after all!)
... when we left the restaurant, I saw that it was
well-lit out in the entry-way! PICTURES!
I had to threaten them with death <ewg>,
but I forced Nora, Pat, MK, and Beth to pose for
pictures! <g> But I gotta tell you ... that
Slut can sure whine, whine, whine, whine, whine!
LOL! I was at the end of the roll of film, so I had
to reload. Whew! Didn't think I could handle the
pressure of getting the film loaded before being
attacked!
<sigh>
Now it was time for good-byes. I know, Wym, but
I cannot remember your wonderful quote about
good-byes. Hugs all around. Last snippets of
gossip.
What a GREAT, FABulous, WONDERFUL, FANtastic
time we had! <g> It was great fun seeing Nora
& her buddies together ... and great fun
getting together with many of the TTP BB/Ns ...
It was a fun time. That simple. Nora, thank you
for sharing your birthday with us! Yeah, we treated
you ... but you treated us as well.
For you that could not be there ... you were, in
a way ... we always carry a little bit of the BB/Ns
in our hearts! <VBG> ... but I tell you what
... NEXT time, let's get even more of us together!
It's just too much fun not to!
Okay ... there you have it ... the truth, and
nothing but the truth! <g>
Thanks, again, Nora ... have fun in the Big
Apple with Pat! <g>
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