The Surprise was Unpleasant

So... Neighbor (and his Wife) came over for dinner. They loved my recipes, we enjoyed the moscato wine that they brought, we laughed, we talked. The lovely meal ended with Ghiradelli (don't ask me how to spell that) chocolates.

Suddenly Wife said, "We have to talk", and proceeded to announce that she and Neighbor were splitting up, and gave us all the reasons.

Foolishly, I struggled to think of the right thing to say. The four of us were heartbroken and in tears. My feeble attemps were crap like, "it happens to a lot of people" and "thank God there aren't any children involved". I felt like an idiot and I was talking like a bigger idiot.

Finally I got it right. "Sooooo," I said, "which one of you gets the house?"

We all laughed and cried some more and then I said, "I'm going to put on some music" and Neighbor's wife screamed, "CAN WE DO KITCHEN AEROBICS???" (Kitchen aerobics at our home consists of playing loud music while dancing, marching or strutting around and around our huge kitchen). We generally do it privately but Neighbor and his wife are better than family so we do it with them whenever they visit. It can get pretty ugly (consider the title of this blog) so we only share kitchen aerobics with the very best of friends.

We started with "Stairway to Heaven" (somber start, but we all howled the last line together), threw on some lively American tunes after that ("American Made", "Semper Fidelis", "Oh, Susanna") and then took a bit of a break during "Shenandoah" and "Swanee River".

Back on the dance floor for "City of New Orleans" (we know all the words)and finally "God Bless America", which we sang opera style. Neighbor is a killer baritone.

We sent them home on a high note (so we hoped) and watched them walk in the darkness until they were in the safety of their own driveway (soon to be his, not hers). Wife crowed like a rooster to indicate they were home, and I responded with my very best wicked witch laugh.

Yeah, we're all adults but we act like kids as often as we can. Life is so short. Today I attended the funeral of a friend, and he was only 50 years old. The end of Neighbor/Wife's marriage is a sort of a death for us, as well.

On a happy note - a good friend of mine got me started on this blog thing, and I'm having great fun with it. Not sure where it will go or who will care about reading it, but I have always loved to write and I'm going to enjoy it for all that it's worth.