MY SURPRISE DAY as i walked toward my car after my morning bus run, i noticed a flower in the cup holder. intrigue! when i got into my car, i saw a note attached: 
hummmmm? i giggled out loud the whole way home as i read it. again. and again. i guess this explained why another driver rode with me...to learn my route. prior to this, all that was on my agenda for the day was raking and bagging leaves. (which i eventually still did). 
AND.....taking jim to the philly airport, later on in the evening, to fly to mexico for 10 days on a mission trip. i walked into the house....looking for jim.  i finally found him upstairs in the bedroom... packing. of course, we giggled. and then i asked him what was up? of course, he wouldn't tell me.  we talked about all the preliminary planning that went on. talking with my boss. asking for me to have off. all he told me was that coey was going with us. then he kept feverishly packing.  he had mentioned about the possibility of cutting his hair several weeks ago. i was excited....but unsure if he'd actually do it. around noon, he asked if i would cut his hair.  i'm certainly a novice at cutting hair....but i was willing to give it a shot. after all, how hard could it be? i knew this was a HUGE MOMENT....so coey and i had our cameras on hand. he washed his hair 
.....then i put it in a pony tail (as i read how"locks of love" requires it). then we were ready to chop.  
jericho asked dad if it hurt....when she saw him making this face. 
ta dah! i did it! no turning back now. 
we moved inside to fine tune the job. 
after i was done, he put surf hair on...and messed it up. it was 1:00. and we were on our way to God knows where! i was loving his new look! i had to take a pic of him at the gas station.  
...and i had a hard time keeping my eyes off of him in the car too. 
i knew we were driving toward philly. i was told there would be several stops. 1ST STOP TRADER JOE'S jim tried a couple cereals here before. he found he really liked them....so he was anxious to stock up on them. 
jim found this papaya with my name on it. 
i was getting real hungry....and these apples looked so good to me!  
jim enjoyed a sample of creamed spinich. 
our cart was filling up with cereal, new zealand cheeses, walnuts, almonds, natural peanut butter, jasmine rice, chocolate soy milk.... all kinds of yummy things. 
while in line to cash out, i admired the comic book art work on the wall. everything in this store is just COOL! 
the 2 previous times i've been with jericho in a trader joe's, she wanted SO BAD to get this japanese pasty covered ice cream that she said was amazing. both times she didn't. but this time she did! 
OK! this is amazing! i even chucked my diet to try this. it was worth chucking it for! i ate 3! 2ND STOP BURGER KING we were all hungry...even though we just had dessert.  we ate in, used the rest room, and we were on our way. jim and coey were getting a kick out of my ignorance. and questions. and guesses. on our way into the city, jim turned on WKYW to check a traffic report. when an ad came on for irving berlin's "white christmas", jim quickly turned it off. and i went wild....hoping that was "it"! of course, no one was giving me any clues. i asked if it had anything to do with Christmas. or if music was involved. going past boatyard row, all lit up, gave me those ideas. man! i was really stumped! i had no idea! and they were having the time of their lives. at my expense. we pulled into a parking garage at what i was later to learn was temple university. the parking attendant asked if we were here for "the event"! we all just giggled and giggled. about "the event"! jim and jericho kept wondering at what point i would find out. what would give it away? jericho said she wanted a picture of me when i found out. a picture she never got.   
i saw a couple beside us get out of their car. i announced that he had a dylan shirt on. then......entering these glass doors, i saw this poster. 
i still didn't get it. they had to point it out. tell me this is "the event"! this was so unbelievable to me! a dylan concert! never in a million years would i have guessed this would be it! we found our seats, sat, and watched people arriving. dylan certainly spans the generation gap....from young to old. at 7:30, when the stage came to life, i found myself going back in time to the turbulent 70's.... along with many other white-haired grandma and grandpas who were tapping, bobbing their heads in time to the rythmn, and mouthing words. his grovely, talky voice took turns, at the microphone, with his harmonica. he was clearly enjoying himself in what appeared to be a dance between the instruments: keyboard, cello, guitars. the bluesy driving beat of the band was tight. and talented. albeit, a far cry from the accoustic dylan i remembered. apparently, he has a new album coming out...and i think most of the songs were off that. he did, however, please the crowd with "all along the watchtower" and "highway 61". as jericho commented later, "he's still got it!" while leaving the city, we were commenting how pretty it was. "magical almost", jericho said. i said, "all we need is big snowflakes falling yet." they did not agree with that part. 
we drove straight to the airport...arriving around 10:30 p.m. jim's flight was not scheduled to leave until 6:30 a.m. he said that he did not mind spending the time waiting till morning. he said he would sleep. i thanked him immensely for the selfless planning he did! i SO appreciated his thoughtfulness in it all! it was SO MUCH FUN! then we took some (blurry) pictures. and left him.  
 
go bless mexico, my love. you. are. a. blessing. LIVE SURPRISES | 
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