I was having lunch at T.G.I. Friday’s on Sunday with my family to celebrate my birthday—technically, not my birthday, but it’s hard enough getting everyone together, let alone on a Wednesday. We had dinner, the staff came out with balloons and some lemons and limes. Usually they bring an ice cream sundae instead, but I’d already eaten a piece of cheesecake for dessert. Which didn’t stop me from wishing that the lemons and limes would turn into an ice cream sundae when I blew out the candle…
When it was time for us to leave, I had the balloons on a string wrapped around my wrist. Mom was about to help me take it off, but I figured, “What the hell, I’ll just leave it on when I put on my jacket.” Consequently, as we were walking out of the restaurant, I had six white balloons rubbing against my head that were attached to a string coming up out of my collar. I imagine it looked really cute, which would explain why some people were giving me funny looks as we left.
So we stood outside saying our goodbyes: me, Mom, Dad, Justin, Brent, his wife Gail and their daughter Gemma. At one point, I looked and saw some girls in the entryway looking out, bouncing around and laughing hysterically. Justin said, “I think you’ve been recognized,” but given that they were still inside the restaurant, I figured they were getting a kick out of the balloons. When they ran back in, I thought that was it. Until they ran back out. With a crayon and some napkins.
Thankfully, we had an extra phone book at home that we gave to Brent that night, so he held it out as I wrote “Best Wishes” to Jenna and “Happy 13th Birthday” to Kristin. Yeah, I sometimes get a kick out of signing autographs, but using a crayon to write on a napkin… that’s hard as hell. There was a third girl who Justin coaxed out of the restaurant by telling her, “He’s a person, too!” She hadn’t watched Beauty and the Geek, though, so she felt too awkward to ask for my autograph. I felt a little bad for her, but glad that I didn’t have to write on any more napkins.
As they ran back inside, I tried giving them the crayon, but… well, they ran back inside pretty fast. With a “grape” crayon sitting in my hand, all I could hope was that Kristin hadn’t blown out her candle and used her birthday wish to meet me—those ice cream sundaes are pretty damn good…
