Feedback Friday (#54)
So I'm surprising my wife today (with the help of some really great friends). Don't worry, the last time she read the blog was back in '76.
The reason I bring it up is that it caused me to wonder about all you wonderful loyal readers out there and the surprises you've pulled off.
See where I'm going with this?
Yep, you guessed it . . .
That's it. That's the assignment this week.
Tell us all about the biggest, coolest, most surprising thing you've ever done for someone else.
Maybe it was the time you ordered 309,756 lime-green ballons and had them delivered to your spouse's workplace (consequently resulting in some forced time off for said spouse). It might be the time you took your best's friends entire home-school support group to the all-night-glow-in-the-dark-bowl-a-thon down at Funtime Lanes. Hey, it might even be that time you saved for a year and rented one of those airplanes to write "Don't listen to what your parents say . . . marry me!" in the sky over the Dolphins first home game. Remember how much fun that one was?
Can't wait to hear all about it.
Ben O.
posted by Ben O. | 11:17 AM
9 Comments:
I planned a surprise birthday party for my husband's 30th. I have this family friend that owns a bar and he said I could fill it up with as many friends and family as I could and he wouldn't let any strangers in for at least a couple of hours. My dad brought Dan in saying he wanted to stop in for a drink before dinner and then we shouted surprise. He was really, really surprised.
I made him wear a goofy hat all night too.
I think it's official policy that you have to wear a goofy hat all night on your 30th birthday.
That sounds like a really nice surprise. Great job setting that one up.
Ben O.
For my mom's 50th birthday my sisters and I chipped in for a ticket for her to go see Pavarotti in concert, in Cape Town, about 900km from where we lived - we put the tickets in an envelope, inside a box, inside another box... you get the picture.
My mom was thrilled and reckoned the trip was one of the highlights of her life.
In SA it was quite an expensive outing altogether and it was so cool because we knew she'd desperately want to go but would never splurge on the ticket herself.
Yay us!
The biggest surprise I think I have pulled off (besides our engagement) was surprising my wife with a new car. About 5 years ago we had been saving and planning to get a new Passat. We knew exactly what we wanted, but I was pushing (on the surface) to wait until she finished residency and started her new job. Her birthday was about a month before that, and I went to the dealership a few months before that and negotiated for and ordered the car to have it there by her birthday. It helped that she was at the hospital so much (as a resident, not a patient...), and I managed to get the car signed for and parked down the street before she got home. While she was getting cleaned up for the picnic with our families to celebrate her birthday, I pulled the car up and tied a bow around it.
It was quite a hit!
Those were the early days of my website, but you can still see an entry in the archives with photos if you dig.
Actually, now that I think about it, there was one other big surprise I managed to pull off. When my (now) wife and I were dating long-distance, I flew in for Valentine's Day to surprise her. I had arranged to stay with a friend who had put me up the one time I had visited before, and I had managed to copy her apartment key on that previous visit as well. While she was at the hospital (as a student, not a patient), I let myself in to her apartment and made a nice brunch.
The only downside is that, not aware that anything was in the works, she was delayed at the hospital for several hours until I finally called and had her overhead-paged, which gave away the surprise. It was still a fun day, and I'm lucky that she didn't freak out over the fact that I had gotten in to her apartment. I suppose I could have ended up with a restraining order instead of that kiss on the cheek...
On the flip-side, she surprised me with a party on my 30th. I don't recall wearing a silly hat, but I was in shock, so maybe I just don't remember.
Everyone wears a silly hat on their 30th Birthday, Rollin.
You just don't remember.
Ben O.
I'm not one for suprises like this, but my brother participated in quite a few.
There was the year we filled the basement which my father was finishing with balloons. It was a big basement and there were a lot of balloons. He had gotten the idea from when he filled his then-girlfriend's Pinto with balloons (took a lot fewer than the basement) for her birthday.
Christ, I was just at one of those night Rock and Bowls, or should I call it Hip Hop and Bowl? It ain't the same anymore...fun, even though it took some beer to get a strike on duckpins.
To the topic at-hand, every day I step into the office I do something unexpected and often feel like I'm wasting my life doing it. That's why eventually my part-time gigs will be the primary. One day....
BTW, I love the title of your blog, man.
I surprised my mother, who lives in Denmark, on her 60th. birthday, by flying home and only told my dad, who was supposed to pick me up in Hamburg, Germany and drive me home. Well, things got a little crazy. He had a minor heart attack prior to my arrival and recived an angioplast procedure(I was going to fly home right then and there, but my father assured me, he would be fine). I left as planned the day before her birthday and rented a car and told him, please don't tell mom and don't worry I will be home. Her and I had spoken on the phone the day before my departure, and she sounded a little sad due to my father's health, and I tried to distract her by saying, I sure would like a cup of coffee and just talk to get a laugh out of her. (My husband and I have 3 children and a very hectic schedule). She said I love you take care, and I promised to call her on her Big Day! Well, the day I arrived in our driveway back in Tonder, Denmark, I called her from my cell phone and asked: Do you think you have time for a cup of coffee and talk? She answered: What do you mean? I was now at the door ringing the door bell, and I hear her tell my dad, he better open the door, since she was in her night gown. He then said: Who can it be this late 8:30 pm? She peeked out the window and said: Some German car is in the driveway, I don't want to talk to anybody I am busy talking to Ulla from USA. Well, he opened and I walked in. She is still talking to me on my cell, and I told her put down the phone, I am right here ready for coffee and a talk!! Needless to say she screamed and dropped the phone and gave me the best hug only a mother can give. I have lived in US since 1987, raising three children and been married for 17 years, and I still miss my family everyday. My mother was dropped off as a six day old infant with her grandparents to be raised, sexually abused as a child and suffers from Parkinson. I would do anything for her to give her happiness and love. Well, thanks for letting me share my story and my best surprise yet, ever.
Ulla K. Dean
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