Wednesday, June 2, 2010

My Presence is Your Present


My oldest sister turned 30 over the weekend. She lives in NJ. I wasn't going to go to the party what with just having gotten home from Denmark and having exhausted my bank account there... But some good friends of mine and hers got together and split the price of the flight. The next thing I knew I found myself again flying across the country solo. I was just shy of being back in California for 2 full weeks.

Now I am back in New Jersey driving down the Turnpike trying to figure out how to properly surprise my unsuspecting sister, who I call "angel child." The girl can do no wrong in her dear mother's eyes. My mom really wants to "scare" her this time though. Her idea of scary is putting me in a box, wrapping it with "happy birthday" wrapping paper, putting the box in the living room, and telling Bridget that this package arrived for her and she doesn't know what it is or who it's from.... Scary? No.

After going over a few other options we decide that I will hang out in one of the upstairs bedrooms and mom will tell Bridget to go upstairs and check out the new bedroom doors she just installed. When she opens the door, I'll pop out and scream at her her. Deal. We get pretty excited about the idea, until we get home and realize Bridget was just over the house this morning and has already seen the doors....

We go over some other ideas and finally agree that I will hide out in the garage...no, the car inside the garage...better yet, a bag inside the car in the garage...

Mom cuts some holes in a huge birthday bag, pins a big gold bow in my hair and stuffs me in the front seat of the car in the dark, hot garage. She hands me a beer with a straw in it to pass the time. The sisters are on their way home. Bored.. hot... dark....have to pee... Mom comes back in the garage...The girls were on their way, but they had to go back to my sister's house because she forgot something... Get out of the bag, run to the bathroom..mom insists on french braiding my hair....Little sister calls, they're 3 minutes away... Get back in the bag, back in the car...dark and hot in a stuffy birthday bag again... I can hear the sisters coming through the door and instantly have to pee again.

Wait for it...wait for it...

Bridget opens the garage door and I lay on the horn, flash the high beams, and shake around in my bag.

Her reaction:
"MOOOOOM!! the car alarm is going....Huh?
"What the?!"
"Who's in there?!"

Her train of thought:
1) the car alarm is going off
2) wait, mom doesn't have a car alarm
3) hey, someone is in a birthday bag in the car
4) why did mom dress up her boyfriend in a birthday bag?
5) wait, Mom wouldn't do that
6) Is it Julie?!

Happy Birthday Briggles!

3 comments:

Bridget said...

Hahahaha, what a great birthday surprise! You guys really fooled me. Thanks!!!!

Nancy said...

A good time was had by all!!!

Bridget said...

That was so funny. Thank you for letting me french braid your hair, I got really good at that over the years! And I miss doing that.
I am still exhausted from last weekend....
Mom (on Bridget's computer)

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