Shiver Me Timbers

Below is a picture of Mr. T dressed up like a pirate. 

I wrote about it here. 

I had the setting wrong on the camera, so it's actually a video that's .00341 seconds long.

His pirate costume is the product of two minds, two closets, and a lot of imagination. 

This is not my first encounter of Mr. T dressed like a pirate.  For my 30th birthday, Mr. T threw me a "Pirates and Princesses" themed surprise party.  My former roomies dressed me up in a hot pink boa and princess crown and paraded me around the Kansas City Plaza.  I was given the assignment to ask random people, "What's the key to a successful relationship?"

Really the only response I remember is this one guy who said, "It's really important in relationships to save yourself for marriage."  I thought, "Duh, we've all heard that a zillion times!"  But my former roomie, Melissa, spent the next 20 minutes repeating over and over, "Wow, that is REALLY good advice," like it was the first time she had pondered the idea of abstinence.  She would say it didn't happen like that at all, and she's totally right, but that's how I like to remember it.  It's more entertaining.

Below is a picture of them leading me to the party blindfolded.  Melissa is on the left in the black shirt.  On the right is Daniella, our friend from Germany who was living with us at the time.  Mr. T is in the background in full pirate attire.

Here's the dessert table, which was one of two food tables at the party.  My friends and Mr. T did a great job pulling it all together.  The party was at Paul and Tiffany Mills' house.  They are the charming couple who set us up and we will aways be grateful! 

Ahhh, yes...and here we are.  He was dressed as the Dread Pirate Roberts from the Princess Bride.  If you have not yet had the chance to see the Princess Bride/memorize all the lines/quote them on a daily basis, you are missing out. 

Right before my birthday I had made up my mind that we were breaking up!  I called my mom in tears and was really upset because Mr. T had me move a (literal) ton of rocks around the landscaping of his house in the hot August heat and I had just returned from a mission trip to Colombia where I moved rocks and was NOT HAPPY about moving MORE rocks. 

My mom knew about the surprise party and felt bad that Mr. T had gone to so much work, so she said, "Now honey, I think you just need to give it a couple more weeks.  You always end these things too soon.  Just see how you feel in a few more weeks." 

I thought, "Are you serious?"  But I agreed.  And in a couple more weeks I wasn't so mad about the rocks and the sight of him in that pirate costume kind of made me "shiver me timbers", so we stuck it out.

It was the birthday party that saved our relationship and now, just a short time later, we're picking out pirate costumes together!