Birthday Rewind

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! Yesterday was pretty good, despite the stupid little snow we got that managed to snarl up traffic yet again.

After lunch and some interesting conversation (which I’ll be posting about soon) with my 4 bestest girls, one of whom came all the way 3 hrs from NYC to join us, I went on my marathon job interviewing. All of them went really well, but I got what essentially came down to a conditional offer from one large hospital. I just have to go through the background check and drug screens and I’ll get a firm offer. I’ve been trying to get into that hospital for 2 years, so it seems like it will work out. Much more money, better benefits, etc. I’ll basically be in mid level administration management. Yay!!

After the interviews, I went back to Hunny’s place. He was sweet and took the day off so we could hang out. We went to Love Café on U Street, which is a branch of Cake Love—I adore their cakes!! So he got me a huge vanilla raspberry cupcake, and put a candle in it, sang to me, and we split the cupcake. It was too cute, and the servers at the counter were all like, “awwww”. I was a blushing mess (dammit, black people blush too!), but still managed to tear up that cupcake :-)

I asked him what was up with him making sure I had tennis shoes with me, and he told me that surprise would be coming later. I was kinda suspicious, and had a sinking feeling that we would be playing Dance Dance Revolution or something equally as crazy. I let it go, and we metro-ed it back to Greenbelt then headed down toward Largo. He refused to tell me where we were going, but assured me that it would be alright. We pulled up in his parents’ driveway, and I got a little ticked.

“Umm, you got me all excited to come to see your mom and dad? I like them, but ummm…”

“Tasha, I just need to stop in and pick up my mail—you know not everything is being forwarded to my new address. It’ll only be a few minutes, and we’ll be on our way!”

“Ok. That’s cool”

He opened the door and it was dark, which isn’t uncommon for his parents’ house. I just figured they were out at bowling like usual, but as soon as we stepped into the kitchen, all the lights came on and

“SURPRISE!”

Hunny, his mom, and younger sister organized a great surprise party for me. The girls I went to lunch with earlier, my brother and his girl, a bunch of my other friends, a few of my cousins and aunts, my stepsister, her husband, her kids, a bunch of me and hunny’s mutual friends, and a bunch of hunny’s family were there. They even had my parents in on it—they’d sent a card and gifts over to their house.

I was so excited, since I’ve never had a surprise party before. And I haven’t had a proper birthday party since I was about 18—my birthdays now tend to be “pre St. Patty’s day get drunk fests”.

I don’t know how he manages to organize surprises like this, but I’m seeing that most of his family is the same way. I guess I’m going to have to get used to being caught off guard all the time.

When the party died down a little bit, I asked him again about the tennis shoes. He told me he’d made all that up just to throw me off, but that he did have something for me. He gave me a special photo album that had in it all of the birthday cards and notes my grandmother gave me before she passed away. He, my mom, my stepdad, and his mom put that one together because they know I miss my grandmother terribly. When I spoke to my mom, she said it took her and daddy about 2 weeks to find all of those cards—my mom never throws out greeting cards. I think that might be one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.

The rest of the night was great, a little bit of a blur, so I’m paying for it now! I need an Excedrin and a nap.