The whole thing was coordinated by my roommate and my boyfriend - they totally got me!
My birthday was on a Tuesday, and for a few weeks leading up to it Joe was telling me he just wanted to take me out to a restaurant the day before my birthday. To bookend that, the day after my birthday we were going to stay in and he was going to make me a delicious supper of charbroiled salmon filets. (Joe is one hell of a chef!)
So the day before my birthday, we get in Joe's car and he starts driving. He doesn't tell me where we're going to eat - which is fine with me, he plays that game a lot. So I sit back, enjoy the ride downtown. We park, we walk....and we walk past this car that looks eerily like my friend Connie's. Blue 2003 Pontiac Sunfire. I've always had a weird memory with numbers, and I recognized the license plate number as hers. I looked closer - there were some fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror just like in Connie's car...AND there was her UWM sticker on the back window, too! I knew it was her and pulled my phone out of my pocket to send her a little hello text message. I still hadn't put two and two together that she just might have been a part of this surprise party.
Joe panicked and told me to put my phone away, that we were at dinner and it should just be the two of us, no gabbing on the phone. I obeyed, and 3 seconds later he pulled me into a restaurant that lined the sidewalk we had been walking on this whole time.
At this point, everything happened so fast! I remember Joe was really serious and straight-faced, he checked us in with the hostess, she led us around a corner, and BOOM, there was this long table all set up with a tablecloth, plates, napkins...and my FRIENDS, all seated around it!!
I was so taken aback, I had to fight off tears and I was all smiles. I've never had a surprise birthday party before, it was so much fun! I pointed to Connie and told her I saw her car outside, and that just led to the whole group laughing and gently scolding Connie that, "You should know better!! Ashley knows her cars - we all hid ours!!!" That just made me smile even more.
We stuffed ourselves, and even after that, our leftover boxes were brimming. We ate at Joey Buona's, a nice Italian restaurant that I've been eyeing up since I was a freshman here in Milwaukee and went to supper there one night as part of a "Girls Night." It was great!
The rest of my birthday week was sweet - Nicole, my friend from Germany, called me at exactly midnight on Monday going into Tuesday, to wish me a happy birthday. Homework was light - senior design was even cancelled by luck! I had free ice cream from Coldstone Creamery...went home for the weekend and took all my closest Milwaukee buds, AND the Brewers made it into the playoffs by the hairs on their chinny-chin-chins! Yay!
Now if only the Packers step up their O-line and Rodgers doesn't have a bum shoulder that lasts any longer than this Friday....
No comments:
Post a Comment