Bucket List – My Birthday Surprise

Settle in, this is going to be a long one…

About two months ago my friend Penny told me her husband was going away for a weekend in May, she was unloading her son with her sister-in-law and asked if I wanted to have a girl’s day.  I’m always up for a girl’s day so I promptly marked it on the calendar.

Fast forward to this past Saturday morning.  The plan was that Penny was going to come here before lunch, we’d go meet her friend at a restaurant in town so that she could give her the cupcakes she ordered, we’d spend the day shopping, come home and have dinner and then chill together for the evening.   I was sitting on my sofa wondering where on earth I was going to come up with the energy.  While she was sitting on the train we were sending each other messages. I explained that she my have to nudge me throughout the day to wake me up, as the drugs I’m on for the IVF (yes, I still plan to post and write more about this) have knocked me out.  She told me I’d probably feel better if I got up and had a shower and got ready, but I replied that I didn’t think I even had the energy to shower, that we should go to town rather than going to the mall so we’d be outdoors and I’d not stink her out! haha

She wasn’t having any of it and told me to get my ass in the shower, that she was going to be here in a half hour and I better be ready.  BAH!  I knew she was right so I shlupped my way to the shower hoping that it would wake me up a little.  Seriously, the extent of my exhaustion and braindeadedness from the medications is insane. You have to see it to believe it.

When she arrived I mentioned to her that we should go into town at noon and have some lunch while we waited for her friend, but she wanted to eat afterwards.  I was calculating in my head and wondering why she wanted to wait until after 2pm to have lunch, I need to eat every few hours and it made no sense.  I tried to change the plan a few times but she didn’t seem at all interested in having lunch earlier, so I sucked it up and thought to myself that Penny is weird.

When I went to look at the cupcakes she made for her friend, they were wrapped up like a present.  There was a card on it that said “Bryan” and she explained that her friend’s husband’s birthday wasn’t until the next day but that he REALLY loves cupcakes.  She asked Penny to wrap the box of cupcakes so that he wouldn’t see them and eat them before the party.  Seemed to make sense, although I wasn’t sure what kind of person can’t control themselves at all and leave a few cupcakes alone for 24 hours.  Penny’s friends are weird.

As we sat on the tram on our way into town she was busy messaging on her phone and would tell me that her husband was saying this or that.  He was in Paris for the weekend with his father and I sat there wondering how he had time to do anything if he is messaging her the whole time.  I yawned, shook my head and thought … Penny AND her husband are weird.

When we got to town it was almost time to meet her friend, but she kept wanting to stop to pee, go to different shops, walk in the opposite direction from the restaurant to look at this or that.  I kept looking at my watch and wondering why I was the only one worried about being on time for her friend.  Again I just silently thought to myself… Penny is weird.

Then, as we were looking through one of the shops, she got a message and told me that her friend messaged her and told her she was already at the restaurant.  Well, DUH!  Of course she is, she’s been sitting there waiting for us while Penny drags me all over without a care in the world.  Penny is SO weird.

Her friend said that when we got to the restaurant that she was in the door and straight over to the right.  So when I walked in I started looking for her, because the place was SO busy.

When I looked over to where her friend said she’d be, instead of seeing her, I saw a group of my friends.  What the heck?  I was so confused.  My drug addled brain was already not firing on all cylinders so things were taking a lot longer to register than normal.

I saw this big group of my friends in the restaurant and my first thought was “Those bitches! They all got together for lunch and didn’t invite me and Penny!!”

Then I realized they were all looking at me, not in the horror of realizing they’d been busted, but smiling and beaming.  I was trying to make sense of what I was seeing – “What in the hell is going on?  Why are they looking at me like that?  Did I win something??”.

Then Penny told me to turn around and look ahead…

Yup folks, that’s the look of utter shock and confusion.  I STILL had not realized what was going on.  Who is that with the camera in front of their face?  What is happening?  Why are they all here?  What has happened?!

SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN!!!

Then they all started singing happy birthday.  Whose birthday is it?!  Oh wait, it was my birthday last week.  They are singing happy birthday to me.  Look at how smiley they all are.  Wait, is this a surprise birthday party?  For me?!

THIS IS A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ME!! Thank god Penny made me shower! haha

Yeah, that’s when things started making sense.  I was all caught up with the program now.  Well, sort of… I was still in shock and couldn’t believe it was happening. Nobody had ever done anything like this before… and look at Penny.  She’s as pleased as punch!  She totally pulled it off!  She planned the whole thing, got everyone there, got ME there and didn’t have a heart attack.  Maybe she wasn’t as weird as I thought she was!

Then the big shock came!  My husband had known about this whole thing the entire time and actually managed to keep it from me!  This is a man that I have to stop from giving me gifts two days before occasions because he can’t stand the excitement.  I think it was the fact that he had the wrath of 20 women to face if he slipped up!

They gave me tiara, a friggin’ tiara!  I wonder how long I can get away with wearing that thing…

The minute I put it on all I could think about was this:

[youtube id=”lmtpjALHRzY” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Ahh you just gotta love Amy Farrah Fowler!

Moving swiftly on…

Once the tiara was in place and I got over the shock a little, it was time for presents!  Now the wrapped package made a lot more sense.  I mean, looking back, that story about wrapping the guy’s cupcakes so he wouldn’t eat them?  How did that not make me suspicious?!

But wait!

There actually ARE cupcakes in there?!  The most delicious looking, chocolate cupcakes. What mean bastard put those in there when I can’t eat them?!  Once again I was so confused… but then they explained that Penny picked the brain of my fellow bypasser and friend, Susan, and together they came up with a recipe for a cupcake that would work for me.  I could not believe it.  I wanted to stuff one in my face right then and there but I had just ordered a sandwich and knew I only had so much space!

Time to move on and see what’s in the other packages… definitely not anything like I was expecting.  I was shocked and thrilled when I saw what my friends had gotten me.  Carol was front and center to get my reaction, and looking at some of the faces I made, I’m not sure if I should thank her for it or not! haha

Oh gosh, I look like one of those weird children whose videos go around the internet when they lose their shit after opening some awesome Christmas present. You all know those kids I’m talking about, the screaming weirdos.  Yeah, that was me.

They bought me an ereader, a Kobo Glo, and I love it!

For the past while I’ve been complaining about the performance of my Samsung Galaxy Note, which I use as a phone, ereader, mobile internet, agenda, and a load of other things.  Lately when I’ve been reading on it the battery has been going down 1% per minute and it’s been making me insane.  I’ve wanted an ereader but after getting this big phone mostly for that purpose I just couldn’t rationalize buying one for myself.   Well, that is no longer an issue!

I’m sure they were all chuckling to themselves over the last few months ever time I posted a status on Facebook bitching about trying to read on my phone! Sneaky, sneaky devils!

Along with the Kobo they also gave me a cleaning set, a universal plug and money to buy a cover for it.  I also got lovely cards and a gift certificate for the theater. How awesome is that?

Also?  They gave me this:

A mason jar full notes from my friends.  Notes about things they love about me, fun times we’ve had together, uplifting thoughts and a general mishmash of feel good tidbits.  I was instructed to take the jar home and take out a piece every time I was feeling down and remember that I have friends that love me that are there for me.

These women… they know me. They know what I am going through at the moment because they are the people I talk to.  They know the emotional toll the IVF is taking on me and how difficult it has been both emotionally and physically… and they did this for me, just to make me smile.

Then it all hit me like a tidal wave, I think it was the bottle of love that put me over the edge.  It hit me just how incredibly lucky I am to have these women in my life, how amazing they are and how amazing my husband is.  That no matter what happens I have the love and support of all of these incredible people.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you already know what is coming!

Yup, you guessed it!  I was just so touched and overwhelmed by their love and generosity that I couldn’t stop it any longer.  Time for the glasses to come off and let the weeping begin!

Thankfully, as I said, they all know me and they know I can be a weepy thing.  I generally despise crying in front of people but between this amazing gesture and me being on a roller coaster of hormones at the moment, there was simply no avoiding it.  So I just let myself cry…

… and cry

… aaaaand cry some more.

Ok you good?  Yup… I think I’m done.

Whew, ok now that we got that out of the way.  Let’s see about that cupcake, shall we?!

Penny even brought candles. So I got to have a candle in my cupcake, which I was pretty excited about!

What?! I told you I was excited! haha

Check out that cupcake!  It doesn’t look like something I should be able to eat, does it?  I was so shocked! I don’t know the recipe but the cupcake was made with coconut flour (I think) and the icing was actually sugar free marshmallow made with agave rather than sugar (this went through the middle of the cupcake) and there was a drizzle of raspberry and chocolate on top. HOLY YUM!

After I stopped squealing like a nerd I blew out my candle. I don’t think I have to tell anyone what I wished for!

Once we’d had lunch, dessert, the candle was blown out and the presents were sorted… we decided it was time to move on.  The restaurant was crazy warm and we decided to leave and go somewhere else to have a coffee and chat.  Preferably somewhere outside in the cool air!

They wouldn’t let me remove the tiara so I got a bit of strange looks.  I don’t know why but I love this photo, just walking through the city with my girlfriends.  So Sex and the City only without the crazy high heels!

I was such a happy, happy girl!

Nothing makes me smile more than spending time with the people I love!

While I still had some of the girls together I asked them to pose for a quick 365 photo for the day. I had so many photos taken but none by me so we all scrunched in a store window for a photo.  I love this photo so much!  While it’s not the best quality as it’s just a quickie mobile shot, I love everything that it reminds me of and what it means to me.  Friendship, laughter and a freaking tiara!

What an amazing day my friends gave me.  I think I will be riding that high for a long, long time.  I really don’t know how to thank them, how to let them know how much I appreciate it.  Penny, for organizing the whole thing, going out of her way to make me special cupcakes to enjoy, getting everyone together and for pity sake, getting my lazy ass in the shower! haha  Xander for managing to keep the secret, holding me off every time I was tempted to buy the ereader myself haha and just being who he is.  All my friends for pitching in for such cool gifts, even those who weren’t able to attend the party.  The friends that came from up to 2-3 hours away just to spend time and be there or came in spite of the fact that they weren’t feeling very well.  Just everything… there are no words to express the joy they brought me that day or how much I appreciate them.

Thank you all! I love you all so so much!

I just realized that this technically means I can knock something else off my 101 List!  Have a birthday party! Sweet!