Aug 21st, 2006 Boy was I surprised!
- Posted on 21st August 2006
- in Uncategorized
- by jeffgoldstein
My Folks and sister are visiting me in New York City from Florida. I was able to get tickets with the TV medium John Edward for a group he was doing here in the city & I invited my mom to come along with me in hopes of being “read” by John Edward. Fortunately, we were… unbeliveable.
On their fifth day here which was Sunday Aug 20th, we had plans to dine with some relatives in a Times Square restaurant. I wondered why that peticular restuarant, Sofia’s. I had been there with friends on different occasions and the food was good, but it was the same time people were going to the Broadway matinees and the streets would be packed. As we walked into Sophia’s, we were headed toward the back and at a long table I noticed a friend of mine. Eunice, actually she is my employer at a place where I work called Plays for Living. Then Sitting next to her was my Theatrical Agent Barry…. what?! Wait a second, there’s more co owrkers from Plays for Living, then I saw friends of mine from New Jersey, then my brother & his wife & my nephew from Albany, then friends from Staten Island, then Mim, the head usher from The Lincoln Center Theatre wher I work as an usher… and it went on and on… Steve, Nadine & Joanie dear family friends from Staten Island, Barry my agent & friend, Yvonne dear to my heart, Eunice, Maryellen & Bill, Judy, and Jenny (my fabulous coworkers from Plays for Living and Yana & Angela who couldn’t make it signed the card), my super brother Sam his wife Julie & my adorable nephew Zack, Enza & Mike friends close to my heart from New Jersey, Missy and Justin my cousins and best friends always from Brooklyn, Mim the chief usher from Lincoln Center whom I work for who I totally just adore, Matt, Elaine & Renee my cousins from Long Island who I want to be around more & more, my wonderful sister Ruth, & my folks. Even Matthew my ticket taker buddy from Lincoln Center who was working at the theatre where Tarzan is playing stopped by to wish me a happy birthday.
My folks had thrown me a surprise 50th birthday party. Wow, never in my life did I get such a fantastic, surreal, warm, loving feeling as I did at that moment. They were all people that I loved, that I always wanted to be around, even my co-workers from work…we socialize all the time together. I was always the party giver, the planner, the person to make sure that things were taken care of for the next person, and here I am now being the receiver. Boy did the tears roll for that moment.
It seems my folks had been planning this since I purchased the tix to the John Edward event in April, and with the help of two of my closest friends in the city Yvonne and Susan (who was in San Francisco on a business trip and couldn’t be there but wished she could), my folks managed to contact all these people. But the kicker is that every single one of these people down to my 8 year old cousin Justin (who I saw at his block party in Brooklyn in July) and to my 6 year old nephew Zack (who I recently spoke to on the phone) were able to keep the secret about this surprise party. I’m shocked! I announced that I’m glad I wasn’t invited because I would never be able to have kept this secret.
My sincere thanks to everyone, how they were able to keep this secret from me and make this a truely surprised birthday party, my 50th, one that I will never forget. And much love to my folks who planned this for me and made this the most memorable experience in my life to date.
-Jeff
PS I didn’t get the part of Adam Sandler’s older brother in that film that I auditioned for… argh! I was so right for the role, but onward and upward… I move on and anxiously await my next audition.
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