Barry's Big Day

It's not easy being married to me. I know most people give Barry grief for being so strange and admire me for what I "put up with," but the truth is . . . we deserve each other. Knowing how much Barry hates surprises and knowing how much Barry dislikes attention, I allowed a big "to do" to be made of Barry's 30th birthday.
It all started about two weeks ago when we were at a hospital conference in Birmingham with some other members of the Executive team at Flowers. I reminded them that Barry's birthday was coming up and asked if they could come up with something. My thought was that they could probably get away with more than I could. I was right. They got away with it. I did not. 1st Cardinal Rule broken: Thou shalt not show Barry any attention on his birthday.
About a week after making this request, the CFO, Talana, called me up to tell me her big idea to surprise Barry on his birthday. 2nd Cardinal Rule broken: Thou shalt not surprise Barry.
The prank was too good, and I couldn't say no to it. Talana was prepared to dress up in Barry-ish clothes and burst into a meeting where she would proceed to yell at Barry for his descrimination against her . . . for being short. You should know here that Talana is shorter than I am, and Barry is always bringing it to her attention. My job was to take care of the food and be there at 9:00 a.m. I decided to bring Canon hoping that it might soften the blow of everything else that was going on. I don't think it worked.
Talana was awesome! No one recognized her - not even Barry. She banged on the Board Room door and interrupted a fake meeting to say "I'm lookin' for a Mr. Barry Moss" in the most thuggish voice she could muster. Even Canon was a little nervous. We waited outside while she walked into the meeting, but we could see the whole show from the doorway. Once Barry figured out what was going on, we made our way inside, and I set Canon down. He immediately laid down on the floor and wouldn't move until Barry picked him up.

What ended up being especially funny is that Talana actually looked exactly like another hospital employee. They even wore the same shirt that day!

Barry was a great sport through it all, but I got a good scolding later that night. I think he's really going to hate the Surprise Birthday Lunch Sam is planning for him in Birmingham this weekend.