OK Go!

Prize Suprise

We were in Floral Park Fruday night at the surprise 50th birthday party for Gilda, daughter of our friend Gilda. It was a total success as both a surprise and a party, with much eating, drinking, being merry, and cutting the rug. And that wasn't a typo, they are indeed both Gilda (pronounced 'Jill-da'), part of a large, boisterous and enviably close-knit clan...

These are the real New Yorkers, the kind I sat next to in homeroom (would have been literally in this case, since I'm an 'H' and they are 'I's...

How to really surprise your birthday party honoree: schedule it well in advance of the actual birthday, and get the person busy planning a different event for someone else. Sheer genius. (Today would have been my parents' 51st anniversary, btw, and is the third birthday of our beloved Bruno, we are headed out to New Jersey later, more on that to come...)

Retro Future

Our long ride to Floral Park through Friday night traffic was retro and futuristic in the same breath. The SUV carrying the seven of us featured in-flight entertainment, on-screen I Love Lucy episodes, a joy not only for the wee set but for we adults who get edgy in dense traffic.

Ah, Lucy, so classic, so universal, and yet so far from reality, even back then... We saw two episode going there and two coming back - vintage 1954 ecapism involving talent scouts, a Hollywood screen test, a live breakfast show in the Ricardo's apartment, and a visit from Ricky's non-English-speaking mother.. I later read up on Lucy, Desi, and company on Wikipedia... more to follow...