Commissioned a singing telegram.

Because my one lawyer friend from Missouri has helped me out a few big times in the past year, I had promised her that I'd treat her out to brunch or dinner one day.

So, last week, I took her out to the sister restaurant (= opened by the same owners) of a brunch place that she loves, only this place is a lunch/dinner place.

As it turns out, it's also where my one friend who used to (and sometimes still does) deliver singing telegrams is a hostess and waitress, so I found out if she was working the night that me and my other friend were going to go the restuarant, and when I found out she was, I commissioned a "thank you, you are great!" singing telegram.

For that, I had to email a bunch of info about my lawyer friend to my telegram-delivering friend, so I wrote about how kind she was, how she does photography and is doing a children's book about her cute dog with her own photos, takes dance lessons, bikes everywhere, etc.

Then, because I knew at some point that I had mentioned to my lawyer friend that my telegram-delivering friend works at that restaurant, I told my telegram-delivering friend that at the restaurant we should pretend like we don't know each other, so the telegram would be a surprise.

Since I had met her at the restaurant a few times at the end of her shift to go out for drinks, I also told her to tell her co-workers (some of whom I'd met) to pretend they didn't know me.

So, I didn't bring up again her working there to my lawyer friend, and when the day finally came and we walk in the restaurant, right away to seat us my telegram-delivering friend pops around the corner to seat us, which caused me to hold back a smile, and she acted very coolly...

I was uncomfortable, and my lawyer friend turned back to me and raised an eyebrow about how odd the hostess was behaving.

Out of discomfort, I asked what the specials were. The question just hung awkwardly in the air, and my telegram-delivering friend said there were a lot, and the waitress would tell us.

After we were seated, we had a nice long dinner - the food was very tasty, and very reasonable - and then when I was still finishing up my plate and my friend was having half of hers boxed to go, this procession starts descending through the restaurant towards us, with my telegram-blowing friend at the head of the procession blowing a tin kazoo, and being followed right behind by the young Mexican host guy, who was holding a piece of cake with a couple candles on it.

As the procession petered out in front of our table, my telegram-delivering friend steps up and kneels down at our table, and my lawyer friend, who didn't know what was going on - at 1st she thought I might be celebrating her birthday, but it wasn't near her birthday at all, she told me later - was like, "This is so weird!".

"Honey," my telegram-delivering friend said, in her wonderful Southern drawl, "This is going to get weirder," and she burst into song right then.

As it turns out, the lyrics were highly personalized, and talked of how my lawyer friend "takes pictures of her pup" (complete with picture-snapping hand motion) and "goes salsa-ing by on her bike" (complete with bicylcing shoulder-roll motion). Later, there was a high kick, and then my friend knelt again and was like, "[my other friend's names], that is why we sing your praises, [her name repeated three times, louder and louder and louder, with the final one held out as the end of the telegram]!!!".

Though I would have hated something like that, my lawyer friend turns out to have *loved* it (she always likes something out-of-the-ordinary and new), and loved how I deceived her into thinking the hostess wasn't my friend... She's been telling everyone about the telegram, and even wants to write a profile of my telegram-delivering friend for the city's independent newspaper.