DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Last night I got the surprise of my life. Literally, I think I have never been this surprised.

My wife, more sneaky than previously suspected, casually suggested we spend a nostalgic night in the City, visiting old haunts. We had a fantastic dinner at our favorite Thai place (Neecha — Sutter & Steiner) and then drove to the one pub in the world where at one point in time I might have been considered a regular, or at least a familiar face, Tommy’s Joynt (Van Ness & Geary).

We walked in the front door and along the food counter, a traditional Hofbrau presentation of steaming, roasted animal parts. I followed my wife as she continued toward the stairs in the back of the room. “Why don’t we get a beer at the bar first?”

She said over he shoulder, not even slowing down, “Let’s see if there’s a table upstairs.” This struck me as an odd thing to say as there was an empty table about 10' away.

“But upstairs sucks, the waittress never goes up there. Why don’t we —”

She was ascending two steps at a time. Were we running from someone? And then it struck me: “Who are we meeting?” Her purposeful lack of response sent a chill. I don’t really like surprises.

At the top of the stairs, we looked around and saw no one familiar. I felt a small dose of relief. And then the waittress (ironically, upstairs after all) called out, “Who are you looking for?” “Nobody,” I answered firmly. But she and my wife knew something I did not, and the waittress pointed at a third room behind a closed partition. Yeesh… what was hiding behind door #1? Probably not a vacation in Tahiti.

“Are you ready?” …a last moment of sympathy before she threw the partition aside to reveal fifteen of my best friends, gathered together and drinking many beers in my honor. I was speechless. And very touched.

Maybe the reason I don’t like surprises is that I haven’t had very many good ones. But this was good, better than good — off the charts good. More like this, please!