Thursday, April 26, 2007

2 Restaurants, 2nd Birthday, 2 Sets of Twins, Basketball's Greatest

We made plans to meet the Sullivan's at the CPK in Encino to celebrate the Princess' 2nd birthday. We got to the restaurant, sat at our table for 10 and ordered drinks. After 20 minutes, no Sullivans and my phone rang.
They asked - Where were we?
We said - We're at the CPK in Encino at our table.
They replied - Well, we're sitting at our table at the CPK in Encino.
We said - No way. What's your cross street?
They said - Reseda.
We said - That's Tarzana.
They said - Oops.
We said - We'll be right there.
And we got back in the car and drove the 3 miles to the CPK in Tarzana.
We sat at our table of 10 (6 kids under 6) and ordered. Then, Dad Sullivan asked Tom if he saw John Wooden and gestured to where Mr. Wooden was sitting.
Tom's eyes flashed and he and Dad Sullivan started talking excitedly.
I asked the obvious question - who's John Wooden.
Much excitement and gesticulating followed - he's the winningest basketball coach ever. He's one of basketball's greatest. Maybe THE greatest. He's written books on leadership and has coached UCLA to more basketball champions than any other coach.
Oh.
As we were waiting for our dessert, Mr. Wooden and his wife rose from their table to leave but before they did so, they came to our table to chat. With 2 sets of twins we generally get some attention when we're together. Dad Sullivan pointed at me and told Mr. Wooden that my family has land out near Purdue and that most of my family went to college there. He smiled and said that was nice. He mostly wanted to talk about the kids - the 2 sets of twins and the lone girl. Then, they said goodbye and made their way to the door. Once they were near the front desk, Tom noticed that they had left their togo container on their table. He sprinted to the table and rushed to the door to catch them, calling out Mr. Wooden! Then, he caught up to them and handed the bag to them and walked back to our table.
Jack asked - Daddy, why'd you run?
Tom replied - Well, he was getting away!

And we laughed and laughed.

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