Surprise!

This past Sunday I was scheduled to meet a couple of friends for an early birthday dinner at Camino{.broken_link}. I’d been working in the yard all day so I cleaned up, dressed up slightly then left for the restaurant. As usual, I arrived right on time.

I stepped up to the hostess and started trying to tell her that I was with a party of three who had reservations under a certain name and they may not be here yet and it may not be under that name so look under this one. Just as things were getting truly complicated one of my dinner companions, Carmella, came from the dining room to meet me. We wandered back toward our table. As soon as I entered the dining room I heard:

“Happy birthday to you!”

Huh. Laura must’ve started singing and others in the room joined in for a lark.

“Happy birthday to you!”

Curious that they all started at once, though.

“Happy birthday dear Vicky!”

Wait. I know that person. And that one. And that one…

“Happy birthday to you!”

I know all fifteen of you! Hokey pete, it’s a surprise birthday party! And it’s for me!

My gast was entirely flabbered, to say the least. I am rarely at a loss for words but I certainly was that evening. In truth the most coherent thing I could think right then was, “Dang, I’m glad I bothered to shower before this.” Mostly what I felt was, “I love you people, dammit.”

Since that evening I’ve heard from a number of people that it’s the first time they’ve ever seen me blush. My pride demands I stand by my claim that it was just sunburn from an afternoon of gardening. Yeah, that’s it. Just sunburn. Uh huh.

This was easily one of the best evenings of my life so far. To have so many people be willing to get together (secretly) to surprise me for my birthday was a magical gift. Even the next morning I was still buzzing and glowing from the event.

Thank you, all of you, for being there that evening. Extra special super duper thanks are due to Carmella and Laura for pulling the wool over my eyes and arranging for the entire thing.

I really do love you guys, dammit.