Awesome! Totally Awesome!

Who other than Jeff Spicoli to sum up last night events. It was the most amazing evening and Joji was completely blown away.

Here is a pic of him griping about having to drive all the way up to Seattle for dinner. Of course we hit traffic trying to exit at Mercer (for those of you who are not from Seattle, we have the WORST traffic problems) and it made us late. After getting the "where are you?" text I made Joji drop me off in front of the restaurant while he went to park. Thankfully, street parking is nearly impossible to find and I had a few minutes to get everyone settled. When Joji finally go to the restaurant, it was pretty packed (Homecommingers galore) and he was antsy to get seated. While on our way back to the table, we bumped into on of his buddies on his way back from the little boys room.
Joji was all "hey, what are you doing here?"
Poor Dave's response "having dinner"
Joji "we should get together soon"
Dave "okay" giving me the panicked look
Joji "where is out table, I'm starving and want to eat"
Me "Uh, turn around Joj"
And there, right behind him, was a table full of his bestest high school buddies. This little group of boys have not all been together in almost 20 years. Joj was speechless. I was practically jumping up and down doing "the girl clap" I was so happy to all worked out.

I had begun putting all of this together in May and for me not to tell Joji about this was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm NOT a good secret keeper and I knew how much he would like it. What made it more difficult was reconnecting with folks and not being able to tell Joji what all his buddies were up to. Of course, I told everyone else within earshot and still Joj never found out. Even Ben and Sam kept the secret (very impressive) For months I was emailing and calling to get everyone there. I almost got the whole gang, but a last minute business trip made the group one short. Still, 7 out of 8 isn't too shabby.
The plan for the evening was for everyone to meet at Bucco De Beppos for dinner and then the boys would be on their own. I had arranged for a room downtown so they would have a place to crash. I figured they would want to go out on the town and raise a little cain (the running joke was the goodie bags would contain cigars and singles) and I wanted to make sure no one would have to drive home. I had also arranged a ride home for myself so not intrude on all the male bonding. However, that isn't exactly the way the evening went.
Instead of whooping it up, the group decided to go straight to the hotel and play some cards and reminisce about the good old days. Now, when I picked this particular hotel, I chose it for a couple of reasons, most of them had been there before and it was a block and half from the restaurant. I sent them directions and we even stood out side the restaurant and pointed to it. You would think that 7 grown men would be able to find the place no problem. Well, guess again. After Joji and I were waiting in the lobby for almost an hour the cell phones started ringing and it seemed that they boys ended up at 3 different hotels. How? we are still unsure. One group ended up at Northgate which involved getting on the freeway (did I mention you could see the hotel from the restaurant?)
Eventually everyone found their way and it was just like old times. I managed to sneak Joji's zune and dock so we had some festive tunes to listen to. Van Halen, Rush, Ozzy, Scorpions... we had it all. Even a little Iron Maiden that stopped everyone in their tracks in order to sing along (not the prettiest of sights, but very funny) I had made some goodies for them, but I misread the room description and there was no oven. There was a microwave and that just did not work to cook the sausage balls. I was a little bummed. However, I did make a couple of pies and those were a big hit.
After I served up the pie and made sure everyone was settled, I called my friend to come and pick me up. However, there was no answer. I called a couple of more times and still no answer. Now, I have to say that I never really wanted to leave, but felt like the boys would be more comfortable without a girl in the room. Yeah, they didn't care, just the old days. As long as there was someone to fetch drink and dish up pie they were good. Needless to say, I was very glad I got to stay. Most of us managed to stay awake for quite a while, but when 4:30 rolled around it was time to hit the sack. Around 7:30 the cell phones started ringing with wives calling to make sure their husbands had survived. Soon everyone was packed up and going their separate ways.
I still can't believe it is over. It was such a great night. Chances are it won't happen again so I'm incredibly thankful I was able to be a part of it. For one night, we were all 15 again and it was great.