SURPRISE!

So, after spending the majority of the day at the hospital, I rushed home for what I thought was a dinner date with my dear friend, Megan. She called to say she was 15 minutes away, which I thought was a little out of the ordinary but didn't really think anything of it. Soon after that, I saw her headlights shining into my kitchen window, so I ran outside to say hello.

As I was prancing outside, I spotted my mom helping Trevor get out of the car, which caused me to literally stop in my tracks. I caught myself second-guessing whether or not I was actually awake because I often have rather realistic noontime dreams. But no, I was definitely awake. Megan looked over to Trevor and said, "Trevor, what did we practice saying?" and he responded with a casual, "uhhh." The whole car ride over, they practiced saying surprise, but clearly I blew the surprise by running outside.

We went to Ichiban, Trevor and my favorite local sushi spot, for their going away-- or returning home-- dinner. Apparently they had this outing planned for the past week and were able to keep me out of the loop. Regardless, I was stoked and more importantly, so was Trevor.

It was a pretty interesting experience taking Trevor out in public. With the help of my mom and his handy dandy cane, Trevor wobbled himself up the steps to the restaurant. In a way, I think he feels embarrassed when people see him struggling to walk or talk. Whenever he knows anyone is looking, he makes a sarcastic grunting noise similar to what you would associate with a lower-functioning person. It may seem like a good technique, but I'm pretty sure it makes people think he's actually lower-functioning. Although, I'm not sure if he would be considered lower-functioning, handicapped or disabled at this point. Personally, I'm going to wait until he's fully recovered before I try to label him.

Anyways, once we were seated, he immediately tried to drink out of the empty water glass in front of him. The waitress came over and asked us what we wanted to drink. He thought for a second and then replied, "pop," which took us all by surprise. Then my mom had to go through all of his options (which are limited because caffeine is frowned upon for those with severe brain damage). He said, "sure." My mom asked, "lemonade?" He said, "alright." Then, he looked over at Megan and me with his 'I'm about to say something hilarious' smirk, and asked, "uh, you guys want drinks?"

Then things got a little awkward. He tried to dip the edamame in his lemonade. He got a bad pod in his mouth, leaned over and spat it on the table. He poured water in his soy sauce. He took his chewed up edamame pods and threw them in the bowl with the un-chewed ones. He reached over and tried to take a drink of my beer. He tried to eat his ice cream with a straw. Oh well! Etiquette, shmettiquette; that's what I say...

After dinner, we stopped by Walgreen's to buy Trevor a cane. Megan and I tried to convince him to get the cheetah-print one, but he obviously chose the murdered-out, black one. While we were waiting at the cash register, he decided it was the right time and place to start dancing. There is absolutely nothing in the world that makes me laugh harder than Trevor trying to dance. He has a hard enough time balancing when he's standing still, so dancing is quite the sight. I have no words to describe it but it's hilarious; just take my word for it.

Normally I hate surprises, but tonight was quite the exception. Being able to free Trevor from the hospital for a night to go out to sushi was the best time I've had in a while. I love my mom, brother and best friend to the moon and back (and then to the moon and back a few billion more times)!!!