Surprise!
Happy Birthday rosedemon, scatteredlogic, averygoodun, and Joe Montana!
This year was the big 3-0 for me. Several times in the last year I've ranted and raved a bit about how our family is lame and we don't make a big deal about birthdays. Neither one of my parents would let us celebrate their 50th birthdays or even their 30th wedding anniversary but I made it clear that I wanted something more than a cake and presents a month or two after the fact. Last year for example there was a funeral on my birthday so my cake got combined with Father's Day and my sister didn't get around to giving me a birthday gift until Christmas. I guess I was spoiled in Japan where my friends and I always got together for everyone's birthdays. My friend Marie even tried two different times to throw me a surprise party but each time I found out beforehand.
I didn't see it coming this time. Not from my family. Still, I had a pretty fantastic birthday weekend already mapped out. Friday I went to the Reds game with my dad (they won with a slide into home in the 10th inning - so an exciting game and they won!) Then the plan on Saturday was cake with the family and then going out dancing with friends. We got hotel rooms so we wouldn't have to drive home. Pretty nice plan, right?
Saturday morning I get up, my sister and her family got in from Louisville, we're chilling out back on the porch when my sister says someone is at the door for my mom. Mom then comes out and tells me it's the Jehovah's Witness lady that I made the mistake of being too chatty with and now comes back and tries to convert me on a regular basis. I tell her to tell the JW lady to go away. She says I should tell her myself. With a big sigh I trudge inside only to find THE BEST FRIEND sitting in the living room! She had flown in from Charleston, SC just for the day. The plan was for my dad to take us up in the airplane for a sightseeing flight over Cincinnati.
We go. It's fantastic. We get back in the car to go home and my dad says something about needing to go to the church to pick up some bills. He's the treasurer so it makes sense. I thought the Best Friend was the surprise. There was more to come. They very slyly get me to come inside and go down to the fellowship hall where there were about 20 people waiting including my best friend from elementary school who I have not seen in person in 15 years AND my friend C who you might remember from some of my Japan travel posts but now lives in London. That's LONDON, ENGLAND folks. She came for the weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday from across the ATLANTIC.
So to review we have the Best Friend from South Carolina, the elementary best friend not seen for over a decade from Alabama, C from London, ksutt7711 from Chicago, Keely and Sara who are college friends came from Kentucky, plus friends from here in Cincinnati like the Roommate and family from Dayton.
And I still went dancing and ended up spraining my ankle but that's for another post. Best birthday ever!
This year was the big 3-0 for me. Several times in the last year I've ranted and raved a bit about how our family is lame and we don't make a big deal about birthdays. Neither one of my parents would let us celebrate their 50th birthdays or even their 30th wedding anniversary but I made it clear that I wanted something more than a cake and presents a month or two after the fact. Last year for example there was a funeral on my birthday so my cake got combined with Father's Day and my sister didn't get around to giving me a birthday gift until Christmas. I guess I was spoiled in Japan where my friends and I always got together for everyone's birthdays. My friend Marie even tried two different times to throw me a surprise party but each time I found out beforehand.
I didn't see it coming this time. Not from my family. Still, I had a pretty fantastic birthday weekend already mapped out. Friday I went to the Reds game with my dad (they won with a slide into home in the 10th inning - so an exciting game and they won!) Then the plan on Saturday was cake with the family and then going out dancing with friends. We got hotel rooms so we wouldn't have to drive home. Pretty nice plan, right?
Saturday morning I get up, my sister and her family got in from Louisville, we're chilling out back on the porch when my sister says someone is at the door for my mom. Mom then comes out and tells me it's the Jehovah's Witness lady that I made the mistake of being too chatty with and now comes back and tries to convert me on a regular basis. I tell her to tell the JW lady to go away. She says I should tell her myself. With a big sigh I trudge inside only to find THE BEST FRIEND sitting in the living room! She had flown in from Charleston, SC just for the day. The plan was for my dad to take us up in the airplane for a sightseeing flight over Cincinnati.
We go. It's fantastic. We get back in the car to go home and my dad says something about needing to go to the church to pick up some bills. He's the treasurer so it makes sense. I thought the Best Friend was the surprise. There was more to come. They very slyly get me to come inside and go down to the fellowship hall where there were about 20 people waiting including my best friend from elementary school who I have not seen in person in 15 years AND my friend C who you might remember from some of my Japan travel posts but now lives in London. That's LONDON, ENGLAND folks. She came for the weekend to celebrate my 30th birthday from across the ATLANTIC.
So to review we have the Best Friend from South Carolina, the elementary best friend not seen for over a decade from Alabama, C from London, ksutt7711 from Chicago, Keely and Sara who are college friends came from Kentucky, plus friends from here in Cincinnati like the Roommate and family from Dayton.
And I still went dancing and ended up spraining my ankle but that's for another post. Best birthday ever!