18 Needs to Be Celebrated

As if it is not bad enough to be born on Pearl Harbor Day, this year Carter’s birthday was the week before exams and just before all the early decision announcements from colleges. This being so she said she did not want to do a birthday thing. The stress and the pressure were just too much. Well, 18 is too big a birthday to just be ignored. Instead I planned a surprise dinner for tonight, the last day of exams.
I sent a handful of Carter’s closest friends invitations asking them not to spill the beans. Thankfully they all kept the secret and also could come. I made a reservation at Nana Steak since Carter always likes a place with the word steak in the name. What I did not do was check to see what time the show at the DPAC started so we had a little competition for parking, but I am getting ahead of myself.
My other mistake was I did not check Carter’s basketball schedule. I assumed she did not have practice tonight since it was an exam day, but I was wrong. You just don’t have practice on the night before an exam day. An actual exam day is fair game. I let the coach know that I was doing this surprise so Carter could get out of practice on time.
Then I had to come up with a plausible story why she had to change into nice clothes after practice and let me pick her up. I am not sure that part of the surprise worked, but at this point what difference did it make. She was going to get a party whether she wanted one or not.
We got to downtown and I was able to sneak in the parking garage a side way, missing the long line of cars backed up to go to DPAC. The only problem with that is the teenage friends did not know the secret way to park and half of them were late due to parking issues. So much for the big surprise. It didn’t make one bit of difference. Carter may have been on to me, but she still had a wonderful time.  
No exams to study for, good friends and good food, what could be bad. You are only 18 once and it should be celebrated. Thanks to Carter’s sweet friends she had a fabulous night.