Gary Love Share (Gary 愛分享)

It's Linda's birthday today. Rita, Emily, Annie and I decided to surprise her this year and bring her a special gift, and we made it. She was freaked out, in a good way, when she received this gift. I guess she was also a bit touched and felt like crying when we had dinner at the steak house. I believe this is going to be one of her most memorable memories even after a few years. We are all stoked that she likes this gift a lot.

For those of you who are reading this, you might be wondering what special gift I'm talking about. It's neither a expensive diamond nor a brandname bag. It is not even close to that. Actually it's a "a call-out service from ICRT". And this great call-out was done by my favorite DJ, Joseph Lin. He not delivered our message to Linda but also played the theme song, "I'll be there for you", from the famous American TV series, "Friends", as requested for us. This gift really blew Linda away and made her day.

Where is the idea from? Well, I've been listening to ICRT for more than 10 years. On Joseph's evening program called "the Jam" on weekdays, he takes call-out requests from listeners and then fulfills their requests by calling out to the specified people on the given day. One day while I was driving home after work and listening to his show, it hit me that maybe we could avail this great service to "wow" Linda and wish her a happy birthday. So, I talked about this with Rita, Emily and Annie and then I emailed Joseph and made the request. A few days later, Joseph emailed me back, told me when he would call Linda on December 23, and asked me if he should play some tricks on her. So I wrote him back and told him that I decided to go easy on her and cut her some slacks. And then all we had to do is to hold our breath and wait for the "big day" to come.

Today, December 23, Annie couldn't join us because her hands were full. Linda, Rita, Emily and I hung out at a steak house and celebrated Linda's birthday. I checked my watch every five minutes while Rita was cautious and checked on Linda's phone now and then just in case Linda would miss the important call from Joseph because he usually calls twice and then leaves a message on voicemail if no one picks up the phone. All of a sudden, the phone rang. And Emily was the only person who noticed that. At first, Linda was hesitatant to answer the phone because of the unfamiliar Caller ID. At that time, we were afraid that she might just ignore it. Thanks God that she finallly answered the phone after Emily encouraged her to do so. What a relief! For those who are interested in what happened next, you can listen to the recording below. Hopefully you can share our joy and the fun as well.

Finally, I'd like to express my gratitude to Joseph Lin for his taking this request and bringing our message and song request to Linda. This is an absolutely wonderful service. If any one of you wants to surprise your good friends or loved ones, just email Joseph at jam@icrt.com.tw and make a call-out request. If you don't know how this works, just feel free to tune into his weekday show, "the jam", on http://www.icrt.com.tw/ from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and find out.

Happy Birthday to Linda again. And Merry Christmas to he who is reading this.

**Call-Out Request Recording: Click here to download and listen.