So I thought that Laura might throw something together (I put her through it, after all) but with the 4 anklebiters taking up her every free minute, I woulda certainly understood if she couldn't find the time. In early Oct, both she and my mother had asked me questions (oh-so-nonchalantly) about some of my friends' last names...THAT I took to be a red flag. And then she happened to say "We should do something for your birthday on the following Friday"(meaning the Fri after my birthday). And I thought to meself "Oh, that's when the surprise party's going to be" So, I was absolutely on to the whole scheme.....but then I got "thrown off the scent" so to speak. My friend Roxanne emailed me "Let's go to Salt Hill on Friday night and celebrate your birthday!" and it was a very cas., off-the-cuff seeming invite. So, I thought, I'll run this by Laura and how she responds to this will prove/disprove once and for all if a surprise party is in the works or not. I said to her "Roxanne wants to know if I want to go to Salt Hill on Friday night. I haven't gotten back to her just yet..since I thought we had something tenatively planned. Should I tell her I'll give her a raincheck??" and Laura was all "No, go ahead. Go with Roxanne" and when I invited her to come with, she said "Well I'm going to be gone shopping aaaalll weekend....so I should probably stay in with Greg & the kids on Friday" " (this is true, I should interject, we had already scheduled a Christmas Shopping Season Kick-off Trip to Burlington for Sat & Sun with our friend Kristi....which we did go on) Now this response had me thinking she is either in cahoots with Roxanne and still has something up her sleeve, OR is being totally honest here, is staying home, and in that case there was nothing in the offing for Fri night, and if it wasn't happening on Fri night it was *probably* not happening at all. So I DID (for the record) entertain the notion that Roxanne & Laura were conspiring, but I dismissed it for 2 reasons:
a) Laura is too much of a control freak to delegate and...
b) I speculated that Laura considered me easy to fool on account of self-absorption and my head being perpetually lodged up my arse. Now , I'm not quite so bad, but I thought that that is how L had me pegged. Therefore, I didn't think she'd employ such complex subterfuge.
I stand corrected.
If I'd known that I'd have an audience of 30 + people awaiting my arrival, I might've gotten to Salt Hill by 6:15 (as promised) and not 6:25. OOoopsie. Although my tardiness was partly due to me doing hair & make-up before I left work....can't say as I regret that, considering how many TRILLIONS of photos were snapped of me. A picture frame was passed around where everybody signed the matte...we'll definitely have a pic to put in there. Hopefully it won't be the one my Uncle Chuck took of me RAVAGING a buffalo wing. Not the most flattering way to be captured on film, that.
It was a really good time and I actually had one of those schmaltzy Hallmarky rushes of warm fuzzies-- gratitude mostly --that I was so lucky to have been born into such a wonderful family and have managed to accrue such awesome friends. I suppose I could've been moved to make some heartfelt and appreciative speech/toast/whatev but I'm just not like that. I kind of wish I was like that and had given such a speech but.... I dunno, on the other hand, I don't express myself so well when I'm emoting, so I probably would've botched it utterly. I did make the rounds dispensing a lot of hugs and "Thank you so much for coming"s /"I'm so glad you came!"s.
If I get any good pics sent my way, I'll be sure to post 'em... (I know, I know, I NEVER post pics. Case in point...my vainly promised vacation snaps)
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