Andrew and I are friends from high school and live only 3 hours apart all the way over on the southeast coast. When I arrived in South Carolina Andrew asked if I'd join him for a concert the day of his birthday. "Of course!" I replied and immediately started planning his quarter century extravaganza. No birthday is complete without a personalized celebratory dessert, so I wanted to make sure Andrew had something special for his big day. Rather than asking him what he wanted, to which I'm sure he would've replied "nothing- please don't make a big effort Angelina", I stealthily (creepily) found his mom Cathy on Facebook and shot her a message asking about his favorite cake. Well, to say things snowballed from there might be an understatement. She concluded that the only dessert Andrew especially enjoys is banana pudding (one of my favorites as well!), so we decided I'd make that for his 25th. I ordered all the ingredients including mini Nilla wafers, but before the banana pudding could be made Andrew had made one for himself in Jacksonville... Cathy and I messaged each other laughing about how we had decided on that dessert, but he had beat us to the punch! I figured two weeks before his next banana pudding would be enough time, so I went ahead with my homemade-whipped-cream-perfectly-layered-in-a-new-trifle-dish-banana-pudding.
Cathy made Andrew a very unique and thoughtful cookbook for Christmas with recipes from friends and family. Andrew and I both enjoy cooking and trying new recipes, so we are constantly sending each other food pics back and forth. I had already heard all about the cookbook when Cathy proposed that I send her some of my recipes to include in the book. I thought this was a great idea and we even expanded it more by her sending all of Andrew's presents to me! It was so hard to keep quiet about this - you'd be surprised how many times Andrew brought up Caesar salad - one of my recipes.
We somehow snuck all of this by Andrew and pulled off a grand surprise. He drove to my house for us to then carpool to Augusta, so I had our Jon Langston playlist, the iced coffee Cathy told me he liked, the 25 banana pudding, and his presents all arranged and ready when he arrived at my house Friday afternoon.
We made our way to Georgia singing country songs on the back roads. Upon arriving at our Air BnB, Andrew realized he had forgotten his wallet in his truck at my house. I would leave this part out of the story because it was so devastating, but it really lends to the euphoria at the end (spoiler).
Andrew called the venue and they assured him it was illegal to let him in as it was a 21+ event. We plotted different ways of proving his age, but nothing seemed like it would work. He had his license number, his fishing license, birth certificate...everything under the sun except his actual license. He was rehearsing telling the bouncer the story "well my ID is from Oklahoma, but I live in Florida now and stopped by her house in South Carolina to then come to this concert in Georgia...". Yeah, we didn't think anyone would buy it. We arrived at the venue shortly after the doors opened. It was not a bouncer at the door, but a legitimate officer of the law with a bulletproof vest and body cam. Gulp. Andrew explained his situation and the officer simply replied "and what's your date of birth". Andrew told him. He then asked "and what's your sign?". Andrew looked puzzled and said "um, I don't know sir". You'll have to hear the full story from us complete with reenactment, but all in all the man was super nice and told Andrew he'd let him in. Neither of us could believe our luck as we enjoyed a celebratory 25th birthday dinner complete with iced tea at the classy Jason's Deli.
We had a blast at the concert; the venue was a mix between Cowboys and Cain's and we viewed it all from some nice barstools the whole time.
We had a quick breakfast and glance into Augusta National before returning to South Carolina.
I have no doubt Andrew will always remember his 25th birthday.
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