SURPRISE!!

I'm finally blogging! Sheesh!

So, the deal is that I was plotting and planning a surprise party for Scott's 40th birthday (October 6). I do not think he reads my blog anymore, but I was not taking any chances.

Let me tell you, it is beyond difficult to throw a surprise party for the person that is in your house with you all the time that is your best friend. I mean, normally if I were going to throw a party, then whenever something happened I would be able to complain to Scott or ask for help or guidance.

I could find out who he would want to invite, for example.

That was just one of the dramatic moments.

Then add to that that his dad also agreed to come for a surprise visit as part of the whole surprise and it just got to be a LOT of secrets for big mouth Heather.

I planned the party with my neighbor Karen, who for all of her flaws, really does believe in going all out and really helped me a lot. The problem is that she is a bit of a control freak planner -- picture my mom only much, much drunker -- and was wanting me to have things done, ready, planned, and on lists. Not exactly my thing. She was really stressing me out. Then Scott and I are pretty cash strapped most of the time, so throwing a party wasn't exactly the cheapest thing to do on our budget. Then Scott's dad had some medical issues that he involved me in as they pertained to whether or not he would be able to come and visit and I had to keep that from Scott for a few days and THAT caused some problems...

It was just more drama than I expected it would be, frankly. I mean, I would be lying if I said that I don't like a little drama now and then -- if for no other reason than to remind me that I really don't miss it being a regular feature in my life. But, between the surprise cancellations and the sneaking stuff in and the stories that I had to come up with!

I mean, I never knew this man was so gullible.

The deal is that I told him I was going for a girl's night on the Friday before his birthday, but in the mean time I had been pressuring and badgering him to make sure that he was off work the Monday - Wednesday of his birthday week. He starts making plans to go play foosball with a buddy of his that Friday night, but then he gets a call from his aunt Janice. She is going to be in town briefly on Friday night and can they hang out? (She lives in the Outer Banks and told him that she had to catch a plane out of Norfolk.) Of course, he says but Heather won't be joining us because she made other plans. She's supposed to be here about 5:30 and stay until about 7:30, and he thinks I'm not coming home because I'm going out straight from work. Meanwhile, I got off at 11 and I'm running around like a crazy person buying the last minute stuff -- liquor, deli trays and Superman colored paper plates -- and hanging up pictures of Scott throughout his life at our neighbor's house as decorations. (Oh yeah, they agreed to host the shindig, I forgot!) Karen's got me worked into a state that Scott is going to come home early from work and when I go home to get ready I nearly have a heart attack every time I hear a car.

Karen's husband Steve takes me to the airport at 5 to pick up Scott's dad and then the calls start coming in. I can't come, I can come but I'll be late, etc. We get Pops snuck back to the neighbor's house and we're getting close to the magic time -- 7:10. This is when Karen is supposed to call Scott and ask him to come over and sample her chili -- the ruse for getting him to the house. But, we're down a couple people who swear they are moments away. I call Janice and she pretends its Orbitz letting her know her flight is running late -- Scott buys the whole thing! At 7:45 Karen makes the call. "Hey Scott, I've been working on this chili all day and I keep adding stuff but I'm not sure if it's right. Can you come over and taste it for me?" Sure, and Janice is coming too. When they walked in, we yelled surprise at Scott and got the above shot. Then Pops came up behind him and said "I heard they were throwing a party for my son's 40th birthday" and then we all lost it.

Very emotional.

It was just awesome and definitely worth the drama. It took me a little while to get over the things that went wrong but Scott finally got it into perspective for me. He said -- you're thinking about what didn't happen, but I can only think about what DID happen.

See, that's the kind of thing that best friends tell you to help you get back together. :)

Happy Belated Birthday to my best friend, even if you don't ever read this blog...

(I know this is a jumbled mess, but better messy than never and maybe I can go back to just blogging again...)