Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Back From The Dead


It's been a while since my last post, I know. (I hope you're still following).

The main reason was work––I work at Ogilvy and fortunately we've been extra busy––and the other big reason was the preparation for our annual Halloween Party, called "The Freaky Fest." Why the name? About 27 years ago, my friend Bubba––no, not the shrimp king or BC––said, "you need a name for that shindig." (As I said, it was about 27 years ago and shindig was a leftover from the '60's and '70's). And so after a few rounds of throwing names out, we came up with The Freaky Fest. (Yes, we were ahead of our time. As the word "freak" is frequently used in today's language. Right?).

Two years ago, in 2007, we didn't get freaky. I was at the end of my cancer treatments and I was trying to stay alive instead of dressing up for the dead. I remember my kids telling me we could have a "small little party" so we could still celebrate Halloween. As strange as it may seem, Halloween is the biggest family celebration we have. Our children have been at every one––except one or two where one of my 4 kids were away at school or like this year, sick––and now my two Grandkids are right there with the rest of us. My Wife, Teresa, is a master at the event. She's the greatest, as she plans and works her ass off to put the party together. And I know she only does it for me, because I love the party so much.

In 2008, I was just out of the hospital two-and-a-half weeks before our party. This time, I had complications from my gall bladder surgery and spent 5 days in the hospital. I had lost so much weight, that I looked like death warmed over. Perfect for Halloween! I dressed up as a pimp. I had one drink all night. I danced as much as I could––that's another FF tradition, we dance all night––until I didn't have anymore strength. It was a good, but shorter than usual party.

This year, was a challenge. It was on Halloween, which meant we were not going to see our friends with kids. It was supposed to rain. I was swamped with work. And not to mention the flu––H1N1 and other petrie dish varieties of the flu––was kicking a lot of people's ass. So, I thought maybe 50 people would show up and we'd have a blast. Wrong! There were well over 100 people in costumes––amazingly, no Michael Jackson costumes––and we finally stopped the music at 3AM. And that's with the extra hour we gained from the time fall back. Yes, we killed it and everyone had a great time.

Good to be back alive.