Doing Palm Springs my way

He stopped by for lunch this afternoon. We spoke briefly about his day and planned what the rest of our week looks like. Photo shoot…meeting…client care…editing. We spoke back and forth much like a ping pong floating back and forth.

JD made me lunch before he left the house this morning, the way he always does. Today it was my favorite salad: A crisp mixture of butter and red-leaf lettuce, diced vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped shallots, crumbled blue cheese, slices of avocado, topped with an organic Mediterranean dressing. We ate the salad together and continued the ping-pong.

What are you doing on October 30th, he asked me. Why, I asked. This is the way it always is. He asks a question and I return with a question. I never answer without knowing all the details. Yeah, I’m sort of a kill-joy that way.

Well, JD said, I wanted to keep it a surprise but…

That’s JD for you. Always wanting to keep something a surprise, but never can. I know every Christmas gift, birthday gift, Easter gift, anniversary gift ahead of time. He’s so excited to give the gifts, that maintaining a tight lip is like a rare form of torture for him.

JD went on to explain that he appreciated my presence in Palm Springs this past weekend with his co-workers. He acknowledged that the weekend wasn’t really about us, so he was thankful of my ability to hang out by myself while he golfed and played poker with the boys. I felt my head swell and made sure to bank my good-wife-points away for a rainy day.

So, JD continued, I just want to tell you that I want to take you back to Palm Springs on the 30th for something special. I started guessing what this special thing could be, but he just hid a smile and continued shaking his head no to every guess. I give up, I said. He loves playing cat and mouse, so he asked me to think back to our car ride home from Palm Springs this past weekend. So I thought. Well, I said, we listened to music, and we slurped noisily on Jamba Juice, and I read aloud to you to in order to keep you from falling asleep. I don’t think we did much more, I said quizzically.

Who was the author of the book you were reading to me, JD asked. I gasped audibly. I choked back a sliver of avocado and said, David Sedaris! JD laughed out loud at my knotted eyebrows and then told me he got us tickets to see him read his published works live in Palm Springs.

I couldn’t have dreamed of a better gift. No, really, I was beside myself with this news.

So, it looks like we’ll be doing Palm Springs again, but this time it’ll be more my pace. A pace that entails tanning to a crisp, reading a until my eyes hurt, and looking at photographs online. Now, that’s a vacation. And David Sedaris will be the cherry on the cake!