My mother decided it was time to retire this year. It was bittersweet as she had spent so many years, decades, enjoying her work atmosphere and all the friends she'd come to know and love, but the last few years have been dreadful for everyone. The culture changed, everyone was miserable everyday, it was destroying everyone's quality of life and everyone was looking for their way out. My Mom's last day was July 6, 2012. Everyone was asking about a retirement party, so I was unable to work the actual party into a surprise. Instead, I worked with her best friend Suzy (my other auntie) to coordinate the date, place and of course one fun surprise... Trey and I coming to her party!
I flew in a few days early so I could help with party details and have some time to spend with Chandra. We had a relaxing and fun time hanging out, chatting over drinks, spending time with Izzy and they took me to a yummy Melting Pot dinner on the last night. They were due to leave for their vacation just one day before the party so they graciously left me with keys to their house and extra car so I could continue to hide out in Austin :)
I got to meet my Dad & Stepmom for lunch in Austin and then while Donna was busy with a genealogy research project, my Dad & I went to see Moonrise Kingdom at the Velvet Crown downtown in the "new" 2nd street area. After the movie, it was about 7pm and we began our walk to the parking garage. It was the most heavenly early evening weather... how to describe... it's warm, it's summer, yet impossible to believe I don't think there was any humidity, and the light breeze you catch like across your face feels like... did I say heaven already?? (this is in JULY people!!!) I really could not believe I was lucky enough to be in town during this miraculous event so I asked my Dad if we could just park it on one of the sidewalk benches and enjoy it for a few. So we did and it was seriously a perfect and entertaining evening on our bench! We chatted and people watched, always a good time in downtown Austin. All the cowboy boots with chic and girly attire makes me kind of homesick even though I don't wear boots. The Darth Vader bicycle cab, the conversation and clinking noise of the restaurant with the open patio we were sitting out in front of and then... the live music!! Oh Austin, how I love thee. We realized we were on the sidewalk just below the new location of Austin City Limits! I didn't think our impromtu father daughter date could get any better. ACL is up over the restaurant, but it's an open air event so we could hear everything perfectly and the headliner was Dwight Yoakam! I think we sat there for about 2 hours and every time I thought it was time to head home, a breeze would blow through and I'd think, "aahhh... just one more, we'll wait for one more of those..." 
Saturday morning, Trey drove in from Boerne bright and early to meet me for a movie before we had to run errands for the party. We giggled that Mom would be so annoyed to find out we were at the movies in Round Rock and she didn't know, ha. We picked up balloons and the homemade rum and tres leches cakes Suzy ordered, took everything to the restaurant to set up and then ran down the road to meet our auntie Elaine (Mom's BFF) at a bar for a drink while we hid out until it was time to surprise Mom at her party. We had Suzy hand her our card to read just before we entered and it read "...and that's why we wouldn't miss it for the world!" She was confused, but was also so overwhelmed by all her guests in general that she didn't think to hard about what it meant so Suzy had to tell her 3 times "turn around Suzanne!" And ta-da, she was surprised :) It was fun to see some of my Mom's friends I have known since I was about 10 and haven't seen in years. I think Mom had a great time and was then excited to have me and Trey in town for a few days! (above) Svena (already downed her shot), Mom & Auntie Elaine reenacting theirs for the photo, lol
