The Mr. celebrated a birthday on Wednesday. But I didn't have the time to wish him proper happiness & such on the blog since I was too busy trying to help plan a surprise party for him.
Maybe this is just inexperience talking, but I've decided that surprise parties are not all they're cracked up to be. It's all lies & deceit & false storytelling. And then there's the guilt & shame for telling all the lies & deceptions & stories.
And why does the celebratory birthday man get extra nosy when I am devising secrets & scheming plots? He doesn't normally ask me lists of stupid questions. Why now?
It's all just so stressful: Hiding certain text messages. Answering the phone in a hushed voice. The nervous twitches. The heart palpatations. The sweaty palms. The pressure that comes with trying to act "normal". Always on the alert. Constantly thinking about what you're going to say before you say it so you don't spill any secret party beans. Exhausting late-night combat drills... No one told me it would be this way.
I thought it would simply be like this:
1. Turn out the lights.
2. Birthday man walks in.
3. Yell "Surprise!"
4. Done.
But that's not at all how it goes. It's more like this:
1. Lie.
2. Head to secret party location.
3. Phone birthday man.
4. Lie again.
5. Wait.
6. Birthday man gets suspicious. (Well, he gets MORE suspicious because he was already suspicious before.)
7. Birthday man approaches secret party location. (Finally!)
8. Birthday man tries bribing someone else to enter the dark & spooky building first.
9. A hand reaches in to flip the light on.
10. "SURPRISE!!!!!!"
11. Birthday man steps into the building while slowly glancing around at everyone staring at him. (A slightly awkward moment.)
12. Birthday man announces that it was no surprise: he knew.
12. Former bets placed are now divided up.
13. Cake.
But it was "thoughtful", he said. And, last time I checked, that's what counts. And there were balloons. That counts too.
♥ Nikki
(P.S. Oh yeah, happy birthday honey!!)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
ah pophoey! how'd he find out? sounds like fun anyway!
ReplyDeleteMy school friends threw me a suprise b'day party when I turned 18 and it was by far the worst b'day ever!
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of one episode of Grey's Anatomy from this season, someone wants to throw a surprise b'day party to another doctor and the plastic surgeon says it's not a good idea...and in the end it was just as he had said....
That's terrible! :)
ReplyDeleteI left you an award on my blog http://almostunschoolers.blogspot.com/2010/02/beautiful-blogger-and-sunshine-award.html
It kind of spoils it somewhat when the birthday boy/girl guesses or suspects what's going on....maybe wait a couple of years, and then do a pretend surprise party...but not actually have the surprise party...just make him think you're doing another one....and then, on the day, have him arrive at a dinner date....and he'll be the one surprised...hee hee hee...my mind works in strange strange ways hey? lol Hugs Naomi
ReplyDeleteWe did a surprise party for Shaye for her 5th birthday because right before her fourth -she announced she wanted one. Um, too late. So she never mentioned again and we did it for her fifth- MUCH easier to surprise kids who really have no idea of what's going on or where they are going in a car anyways. :) Every child should have at least one in their life- the look on her face was priceless as it slowly dawned on her. :)
ReplyDeletewe did this for my hubby too last week. apparently i'm a really good liar cause i wasn't bothered in the least. lol. kidding. i wasn't bothered cause it wasn't AS elaborate as other people's usually are. the surprise was everybody dropping in at the same time & food magically appearing. he was suspicious because the nephews & i decorated, but i blamed that on the nephews. when the first few showed, he wasn't bothered. after quite a few AND the arrival of the VAT of ice cream, he said "how MANY did you call?!" lucky for me it was all text so i could honestly answer none. he then asked how many i emailed, how many follow my blog (which i can also honestly say only a couple, but didn't matter cause i didn't post there)...finally he asked how many i texted. that answer was honest too, "i can't remember, hun."
ReplyDeletefunny thing is he was talking all night about a scene from the movie "In Good Company." have you seen it? its a few years old with dennis quaid in it. if not, here's the scene: a surprise party's planned for dennis. he's very suspicious when he arrives with his daughter, says he's gonna check the mail & be right in. the daughter heads in the dark house. when the lights come up, he walks in in only his striped boxers & socks! (then he moons them)
good thing my hubby didn't take any cues from the scene that night! lol.
happy bday to mr whimsy love!
I know exactly what you mean. A couple of years ago I put together a surprise party for my husband and he got SO depressed in the days leading up to the party because all the friends he called (who were coming to the party) to hang out with him blew him off. I really began to wonder if it was worth it. We didn't do the "jump out and shout SURPRISE" thing. People just started showing up and the doorbell just kept ringing all evening long. He loved it. The lying did get a little oppressive, though! :)
ReplyDeletelove this! i did a surprise party for my hubby's 30th b-day. we seriously waited for an hour because the guy who supposed to get him there on time DIDN'T!!!!! fun times! haha!
ReplyDeleteanyways...love your blog. you always brighten my day. i have an award for you. if you check out my latest post at my blog.
balloons always count! surprise parties are best left to television and film. :)
ReplyDelete