Dan Rice, Chopper 4
I unexpectedly missed work last Wednesday. My birthday, which I share with Kendra Farn, was two days earlier and my wife Shannon decided to surprise me with tickets to see “The Lion King” on Broadway.
To keep it a surprise, Shannon didn’t tell me about it until Wednesday morning. Cleverly, she turned off both of my alarm clocks the night before. When I finally woke up, I rolled over and noticed a hint of daylight coming through the window. Daylight is a bad thing to see when you’re supposed to get up at 3:30 a.m. everyday for work. In an instant, I shot out of bed and stared down my alarm clock. It read 5:18 a.m. and prompted me to blurt out some choice words that I can’t repeat here.
Shannon told me to go back to bed. I stared at the clock and thought to myself that she was nuts. She told me to go back sleep again, but I firmly objected. Finally, Shannon relented and said, “Go back to sleep, you have the day off.”
Shannon had secretly arranged for me to get the day off with my colleagues. It took me an hour to relax enough to fall asleep again because my heart was still racing. Shannon told me many of our friends and family thought it was mean to trick me like that. I assured her I’d do the same if the situation were reversed.
As it turned out the play was amazing. My wife and I were blown away by the performance. It was the first time we took our two kids. Our friends thought we were nuts for bringing them, but Zach, 4, and Mackenzie, 2, were perfectly well behaved. The live-action animal puppetry kept them fixated on the stage. Zach even sang the songs on the way out of the Minskoff Theater.
The best part of my birthday present was not the show tickets, or the scare that my wife gave me. It was the unexpected day off. Sometimes I get caught up with chasing breaking news and dealing with the day-to-day Chopper 4 operations (i.e. researching possible stories, scheduling flights, dealing with equipment problems, completing flight logs, etc.) I sometimes forget there is something bigger and more important than my work and that’s my family. Thank you Shannon!
