Waiting to Get There. Usually on the A/C/E in Chelsea, New York City.

  A birthday cake that barely fit in the back of my brother's car Was Pop surprised? He says not really. He says there were clues. First, my Aunt Edith texted my mom a question about the party.  You might be wondering, rightly so, why texting my mom would result in pop learning about his surprise 80th birthday party. It's because the two of them, ultra-annoyingly, share an Apple ID and therefore, if you text one of them, both my mom and dad get it.  (This is not relevant to the birthday party but let me make it known that also, if one of them texts you back, the text may or may not look like it comes from the person who actually texted it.  So you get a text "from your dad" about vintage elbow length gloves or going out to the cute breakfast place for a chocolate croissant with Ruth and Phyllis and oh by the way, Marge from the library just had a hysterectomy. Anyway, eventually you realize the name on the top of the text is the wrong parent but it's a rough minut

Frankly I only had a semi-inkling what Yacht Rock was before we went to the big concert on Pier 17 with Stacie and Andy earlier in July. At first, when Stacie and Andy asked us to go, we declined the Yacht Rock invite because we were supposed to be in Mexico celebrating Tom's mom's windfall $$ from the Round-Up class action law suit that week. The trip fell though, which might have been pre-destined anyway because it turns out it's the lawyers who make most of the money in class action lawsuits. Getting to go to the Yacht Rock show became the silver lining of that whole fandango however. Not that I'd ever admit it, but I still do not entirely understand the actual definition of Yacht Rock. I guess it's one of those things you know it when you hear it: Tom said it's the kind of music that white people listen to on boats. I think it's the kind of music that  Milennials and GenXers assume white people older than us would listen to on boats.  The word ironic pro