S U R P R I S E!!!! Its your birthday party!

So yesterday my friends, some new and some old, threw me a quite fun and quite deranged surprise party. I was told by my ever-suave husband that I was being taken out for a romantic dinner, just the two of us, and I was thus prepared for an evening of candlelight, relaxing music, some fine wine, and the occasional caressing of hands - picture something akin to Michelangelo's Creation Of Man painting.

I was quite happy about this, after all you only turn 22 once, unless you believe in reincarnation, in which case I may actually be you reincarnated and this is your 67th 22nd birthday - happy birthday, you old soul you!!!!

So, as we are headed to the secret restaurant destination, my anticipation growing, my hunger swelling up inside me, we suddenly take a right turn, coincidentally might I say, down my best friend Jacquie's street. My husband's explanation for this - "I have presents for you stored at her place". Hmmm...think think...that's probably true, no funny business here, oh, but wait, he wants me to come inside!!!! At this point, having missed all the warning signs completely, those being (to name a few): my friend Patrick's white-as-snow Ford parked on the street, the statement earlier in the day by my friend Desiree that she was "sorry she couldn't stay for my birthday", and the disappointing news that my special girlfriends rendezvous planned for Monday had been cancelled. Even after all this, I unwittingly made my way inside to the party.

"S U R P R I S E !!!!!" Such a fun way to start an evening with friends, really it is, especially if you don't throw up or start laughing hysterically with embarrassment. :) It was quite a surprise - all of my friends, some from church circles, some from friend circles, some from very strange circles that we won't talk about here, all in one room together to celebrate me. Its quite overwhelming really, even more than a wedding, cause at least some of the attention goes to your significant other - but not at a surprise birthday party - nope - its all about you baby and its time to impress, to be the most entertaining Amber all your friends have ever known. You must endeavor to prevent people from asking, "Hey, why are we devoting an entire evening to one person", and then you are forced to locate your inner diva and answer, "Its because I'm frikin amazing! Now get me some cake!".

During the course of the evening, I found myself doing impressions of Stewie from Family Guy, and my most evil of evil laughs for the sheer enjoyment of my demanding friends. I noticed that my new friends looked a little frightened by my evil laugh and perhaps wondered if I was a few fries short of a happy meal.

This is the point in the evening I proceeded to suggest lame party games like charades. Charades is such a fabulous game, especially "amongst the brethren". It's good ole' clean fun and a chance for everyone to get their two minutes of fame that may, perhaps, go down in charade history. The charade from last night that will forever go down in surprise party charade history, was performed by none other than Cheryl N.. Cheryl is, and I quote, "not a party game person", and I assume this is the result of some past party-game trauma. Nonetheless, she was forced by Team 2 to do her part, and she did a surprisingly life-like impression of Jabba The Hut from Star Wars.

It was amazing really - the drool, the obesity, the disqustingness - it all came out nicely in her acting, but for some reason every time someone yelled out "Jabba The Hut!?" as a guess, Cheryl looked mad and flabbergasted. It was about five minutes into this going-nowhere charade session that we, on Team 1, realized she had picked the card that said "YODA", and was, in fact, quite confused and in need of some serious Star Wars re-education.

We helped the poor child out by informing her that she was acting out the wrong character, and allowed her to proceed with the actual YODA charade. That one wasn't as impressive, but by this time, she was so exhausted from acting out Jabba The Yoda/Yoda The Hut that we let it go. I thought that it might be a good idea to organize a meeting for Cheryl with my friend Dawson, who is, at least in my estimation, a Star Wars buff. She will get a proper re-education, and with some work, we can ensure this mal-charading never happens again. I have to add that this disgusting charade mishap has further added to Cheryl's party-game trauma, and she is probably at home crying right now.

So after the Charades was gift opening time. I have to say, I was showered with gifts, and got gifts I could shower with (from Lush and Escents)...hee hee hee, I crack myself up! No, but seriously now, I got a LOT of gifts, too many really, and it was very overwhelming and embarrassing. They wanted me to open them one by one, watch the expression on my face, my every response. Getting through the gift opening part was the hardest! The coolest gift I got was deliriou5?: cutting edge, an old-school CD that brought back a lot of fond memories for me (this is a shout out to all my old OCF peeps, I still can't believe we didn't break Brian and Lucie's floor the way we danced to Happy Song!). Anyway, like I said, the gifts were amazing, such a blessing, I was spoiled rotten, especially by my husband, and...I like it!

After the gift opening, the party started to die down; one by one people began to leave, I was hugged, kissed, and sweet happy birthdays were whispered in my ear. It was a wonderful party, really it was, and I feel so valued and loved. We laughed, we cried, we ate and drank. There was even a spontaneous co-ed cake fight that broke out, which may have permanently stained Jacquie's carpet with blue icing. I tell ya, Christians get really out of hand at surprise parties, and something like blue icing always gets spilled on the floor. Its wrong, just wrong!

The funny thing about surprise parties is that in order to have a really good one, you first have to think that your friends have completely forgotten about you and feel really sorry for yourself. I didn't think I was going to have a party. There was not a lot of mention about one, I was really confused, and as far as I knew plans were being switched and rearranged and it was a bit dissapointing. Chris and JQ did a great job of setting me up for this one. Hee hee. It's only after you enter a room full of smiling faces yelling surprise and see the presents, food, and balloons that you realize (much to the chagrin of your self-pitying id), "They love me, they really love me!". To think, a group of people from all different walks of life would wait patiently in a stranger's livingroom for me to make my fashionably late arrival!!! What a blessing, and, of course, what a surprise.

Sometimes being loved and cherished is surprising, especially in this world. God's love is like that - just when you thought you were worth nothing "surprise!", there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

I feel so blessed, and I am so happy to be 22! Yay, another year of renewal and abundance of life in Christ!

Thanks to all my friends for loving me and celebrating me!

Peace out.
Amber