And then I turned 30 last month. In style. Or rather, in my pajamas - for all the world to see, if Jason ever shares that damn video. Drew pulled a good one over me - he suggested a surprise trip to Denver for my brother Jason and his girlfriend Jenn to coincide with my birthday. My big 3-0 happened to fall on a Saturday, and in serendipitous fashion, I scored a half day of work on Friday. So Thursday night I was getting pumped for a weekend of fun - though I didn't actually have any plans and Drew said we'd just see how it went (and that I might want to play with my presents, whatever that meant). So pumped, apparently, that when Drew got a call from work and had to head in, I decided it was a perfect time to go to bed. No sense waiting up for the packing line at Nestle Purina to work itself out.
Drew came home an hour or two later and asked me to come out to the front porch since someone had left a present, and I might as well see for myself. And you know where this is headed...I step outside and no package. I take a few steps down the walk and no package. I peek around the corner of the garage and find Jason (filming) and Jenn (giggling and clapping). I spin on Drew, give him a quick punch on the arm (reflex, apparently) and call him a bad name...and then hug everyone, a few times over. The rest of the weekend is a little bit of a blur, but there was in no apparent order: drinks, hiking, alpine lakes, SUN, cake, euchre, hammocking, SUN, and grilling. I can't thank all three enough - for pulling of such a great surprise, for sacrificing time towards defending a thesis, and for making my big 3-0 particularly awesome. Love you, guys.
And wouldn't you know it - a month and a half later I got to be on the other end to surprise Brent, a college buddy, for his big birthday! It's not easy to plan a trip FOR a birthday boy when he's the one who has to fly, but the ever-awesome Kelsey managed with flying colors. We all converged in San Diego to surprise Brent and enjoy a week or so on the beautiful coast for what has come to be a yearly tradition. : ) (Pictures to come on that one!)
Nice work all around, everyone. Now how do we top it all next year?
(Oh, here's a random birthday
moment. Remember that half day I had on Friday? How about "Why do you
have a stone named Kidney?" Let's just say my boss thought I needed a
constant reminder of the day I almost keeled over at work. You put the
rest together. Thank you, Daryl.)
