Reach For the Stars

Today was Susan's 35th birthday! Stacey went behind Susan's back and invited a bunch of people to lunch to surprise Susan and I called and changed Susan's reservation from 7 people to 14. Stacey, Susan, Brian, Myra, Mary Beth, Misha, Mike, Keith, Kelly, Jaime, Marshall and I all had lunch at RX downtown. RX is a new restaurant that is owned by a couple of friends of mine from high school in Goldsboro. Marshall and I tried to go there before but it had either been closed or packed. For an appetizer we got the cinnamon rolls and they were awesome. I got the flank steak and Marshall got the chili cheeseburger. He loved it so much he then got another chili cheeseburger! It seemed like Susan had a good time and enjoyed everything we put in her bowl, including the autographed Army Wives photo.

Jamie gave us a beautiful star picture that her mom had made for us for the new baby. It seems as though stars is becoming a theme this time around with gifts for the baby. While the last star picture was meant as a reminder of the new baby of his older brother in the Heavens that would always be looking out for him, this picture says, "Reach for the stars." I'm not sure the exact reasoning for why she chose to make this particular item for the baby, but it seems it could have multiple meanings behind it. One being reminiscent of the first star picture in that his older brother Nolan would always be among the stars and whenever he wants to be close to his brother all he has to do is reach for the stars. The other meaning being to always strive for all your dreams as no dream is too big, so go ahead and reach for the stars.

After lunch we just tooled around the house for the rest of the afternoon. Still full from his two cheeseburgers from lunch, Marshall opted out of dinner, so I went solo to meet Susan, Stacey, Kelly and Susan's gay guy friends from Raleigh for dinner at Circa. I had met Aaron before as he was Susan's date to our wedding, but I hadn't met his boyfriend DJ or the other couple. Dinner was great as always. Susan had a creme brûlée for her desert and we had the waiter add a candle for us so we could sing Happy Birthday to her. They had a piano player tonight at Circa and upon hearing us starting to sing, he stopped what he was playing and started in on Happy Birthday to accompany us. Dinner lasted awhile as we didn't leave there until 10:30pm. It was misting slightly as we walked outside. The boys said their goodbyes as they headed back to Raleigh. I too said goodnight and left the girls to go bar hopping without me. As I walked down the block to my car I noticed how full and beautiful the moon was tonight. Despite the drizzle, the moon was still full and bright and even the stars were fairly noticeable. It felt like a day of nothing but good food and good friends, but it was worth every calorie.