Taylor’s Funky Fresh Fortieth

Taylor wanted two things for her birthday:

• Her Friends
• Dancing.

And a few months ago- plot twist! – she asked me to be in charge of planning it. After my extensive track record of planning exactly 0 parties, this was gonna be a blast.

Fast forward past the months of prepping the house each weekend to make things look good, and the whole night was a lot of fun. We rented chairs to make things look “Funky and Fresh” to match the theme of the party, and rented speakers to dance- thank you to all of my neighbors who didnt call the police as we danced until 12:00 (my legs are still sore). Missy Elliot, Lil Wayne, and TLC were all welcomed with open arms.
And, I leaned into Pepper Moon Catering so that none of Taylor’s dear friends had to volunteer to work the whole night to keep things moving. It was so, so good to see so many friends together from over the years.

Somewhere along the way of planning this party, a friend of Taylor and I’s suggested something that seemed just absurd, but possible: what if we get Taylor, the skee-ball queen, a skee-ball machine of her own? “Preposterous”. I said. Then, within 24 hours of that comment, it seemed like a wonderful idea. In summary, here is what happened. Our friend began collecting money from those coming to the party, and:

• Found a skee ball machine on Facebook Marketplace.
• It was sold by the time I could get a truck and get there.
• Found another skee ball machine in Fayetteville, NC (2 hrs away).
• Rented a U-Haul pickup truck, and drove there with Rosie.
• It weighs 700 pounds
• Had to store it in a warehouse here in town for a month (Thank you Mark!).
• Had to pick it up from the warehouse and bring it home when Taylor was out of town. It was too heavy to unload.
• Had to hire 2 people from next door to come on short notice and help me move it into its new home.
• I wasn’t murdered by a stranger in the process.

With the gift hiding behind the sheet that Rosie constructed, here was the big reveal:

And this: Yes, it was A LOT of work to put this thing together; but, it was really special as her husband to see how many people stepped up to help volunteer their time and energy to contribute in some way: a few hours before the party, a small team of specialists transformed our house with balloons, flowers, and everything else needed to honor Taylor (Thanks Mallory, Deborah, Evan, Stacey!). Others helped make the music playlist for dancing- and not one song was skipped, the playlist was awesome (Thanks Rachel!). And CiCi for letting me use her van to move that gigantic game. And thanks Sara Core for helping to make the skee ball machine a reality, she loves it. And Mark for letting us use his warehouse.

After all the years I see Taylor instinctively love on others, it was really, really special to see others love on her.