Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Surprise Party...

...My 60th isn't until next week (9/23, same day, same year as Bruce Springsteen...think he dyes his hair? I hope.), but my staff held a surprise party for me yesterday at the Christian Writers Guild. My assistant and my wife are the worst liars in history -- I guess that's good news -- so I caught on before I got there. I even put a note in my pocket that read, "Let the record show, I figured this out almost immediately."

But it was still a hoot and I was moved by how many people came, my pastor and best friend (who happen to be one and the same), one friend I hadn't seen in 43 years, and many others. The staff had assembled 60 each of a lot of my favorite things: packages of peanut butter M&Ms, Diet Cokes, limes, books, Scrabble tiles, photos, etc., etc.

I'm still in denial over this birthday and so counting the days.

Kerma Murray, director of the guild (check us out at www.ChristianWritersGuild.com), holds the cake. It took me three huffs and puffs, but I got them all out just in time to keep the smoke detectors from going off.

3 comments:

Tasha Reed TL11 said...

Happy Birthday Jerry!

Anonymous said...

My favorite moment was when you walked in and pulled out the piece of paper, proving that you knew about the surprise. My second favorite moment was watching your staff try to pull off the surprise before you got there. Great party, great people. We wouldn't have missed it. With Affection, Bill & Jan

Jena Simms said...

Happy Birthday Jerry, and many, many more!