Thursday, July 9- SURPRISE!

Well, Thursday was Juan Carlos's birthday; he's Mayra Loca's brother. The plan was Bavaria, however, Shania had said she had wanted to take me to sushi, so she and Alma and I were going to go for sushi first. The place we were going was new. We got all dolled up and after Alma had run all her errands after work, she came home and picked me up. Somehow, we were there relatively early. We were supposed to meet at 9. We got there around 9:15, I think, but apparently it wasn't going to just be us and Shania. Eli (pronounced Ellie) was already there, but we were waiting on a crowd of about 7 more... Hmmmm.

Shortly after, Conci joins us, and Shania and Neyva. Ocyé, Karina, and Vicki also arrive.

We finally get seated and the waiter/manager comes and whispers to Alma. I look around and there is no mariachi band, so I figure I'm safe from karaoke. She still has a suspicious face, though, so I ask her what she had said to the guy. She said she asked him if we could go ahead and order (because it was approaching ten by the time we sat). A few minutes later, he was coming out from the kitchen with a banner.

I had secretly been wanting one of these banners all year. They're pretty much a Mexican staple for any party- birthdays, going aways, coming backs, you name it. Shania got one in the airport in Mazatlán when she got home. I quickly realized that this sushi was actually about me! That was a nice surprise. It wasn't the whole crowd. In fact, it wasn't even the typical crowd, but it was Shania and Alma's doings and it was all for me. I wanted to cry. As if I hadn't been crying enough the whole week before thinking about Alma's upcoming departure!
We had a decent dinner. It was not our favorite sushi, but it was okay. The manager was at least funny and helpful. We often raised our hands as a table to get his attention. He loved us. We would never, ever share that we didn't absolutely love the place, though since it was owned by narcos. As the banner came out, Alma asked if we could hang it on the wall. He mumbled something about the tape pulling off the paint and then named the narco group and said they'd just pay to redo the wall if something happened to it. I clearly didn't catch all that, but Alma retold the story to those around her, and I asked clarifying questions.

We finished up there and had another stop. We walked over to Bavaria for a few songs, dances, and Happy Birthday hugs for Juan Carlos.

We met up with some of the "usual suspects." I was thankful that it was not ridiculously hot this time. It's almost always suffocating in there, but this time it was almost cool. Almost.
After a few songs and chit chat, we made our way out again. There was one more stop. Elvira had some PISI party at a bar on the other side of town, so we were going to meet up with her. Quinantzin was with her. As we were making carpooling arrangements in the parking lot, Alma looks at me and asks if I have the keys. Of course not! She had left her purse in the car in order to have less in her hands while dancing, etc. Well, what had happened was she had given Ocyé her keys and money while we were at sushi. In the middle of our time at Bavaria, Ocyé had decided she needed to go home. She told us all goodbye and left, but Alma failed to realize the location of her keys!

At that point, we needed a plan. Alma needed to get to Elvira's party, so she rode with Conci and Shania and others to the bar. I rode with Karina and Neyva to Ocyé's house to get the keys and drop off some paper. We went back to Bavaria where I drove Alma's car to the bar. The original plan had been for just Karina and Neyva to take care of it. However, Shania remembered that Neyva can't drive. As if that would stop anyone in Mexico, but apparently their year in the States affected them a little. Just kidding. Kind of.

I entered the picture to drive the car. By the time we got there, the bar was closing, so we called it a night and headed home.

It was a good night. I was really sad thinking about Saturday. The good news was we had one more day before Alma had to leave.