So. This David Budd o' mine is pretty much the most fabulous person ever. I have a little story to tell.
First, to set the scene, you should know that today is my birthday. Yay for birthdays. You should also know that yesterday Dave had the day off and we did our celebrating then. Finally, you should know that we're not really celebraters. We're just not. We don't do Christmas presents for each other, we don't do birthday presents for each other. Usually we mark the day with a meal out or specially prepared or a trip to the park or the coast or something like that which is accompanied by a kiss & hug, and a "Happy Birthday, I love you!"
Lately, however, I've been feeling a desire for a bit more. I mentioned this to Dave a couple weeks ago and said I was thinking about inviting some folks over to celebrate. This is a very big deal because I do not remember having a birthday party. Ever. There may be a memory that I've forgotten (mom??) but I think I always chose the shopping option. So I thought, "Hmmm, maybe this is the year I should throw caution to the wind and actually have some sort of party." And then I promptly did nothing about it and came up with another idea to visit the coast. And did nothing about that.
And then I sent my lovely friend Emily an email saying "whine whine whine should I do something? whine whine." And she listened to me complain and told me to get off my butt and do something. And I'm afraid I didn't.
And there's the backstory.
So yesterday morning I woke up to find that Dave had gotten up in the middle of the night (like literally 2 or 3 am or something) and decorated the house with balloons and streamers. Awwww!
And so I spent the next several hours lounging about, reading things, taking Strengths Finder tests (another post) and being spoiled with breakfast in bed. I started the booking a massage process (dave's gift to me...Awwwww!) Dave and the kids presented me with a painting they'd been working on for me (Awwww!!!!)
We had some lunch, and took the kids to Claim Jumper for a birthday slice of Motherlode cake. Dave suggested I look over the menu a bit and be sure that's what I really wanted, but really. There's no other choice.
We went to look at IPhones as I've been thinking about upgrading from my pretend prepaid phone to a real live smart phone. We went home take care of dinner and put the kids to bed and I was thoroughly satisfied that this has been a fantabulous birthday and was completely looking forward to this upcoming massage.
Dave encouraged me to get out of the house and go to a girls night out that a friend had been planning. I drug my feet a bit (sometimes I'm like that), but I got out the door. I got to my friend Jaime's house and noticed that the house was dark and there weren't other cars there. I had been purposely late so as not to be the first one there since I wasn't liable to know a lot of folks. But it looks like even ten minutes late (maybe 20) was still early. I knocked (since I knew she was putting the kids to bed early and I didn't want to be the one that woke them up), I knocked and finally got the courage to ring the bell from another friend that showed up (yay Wendy!)
We went in and out jumped a bunch of friends screaming "Surprise!" at me! My first thought was more along the lines of "You're surprising me that you all know each other? What is Leslie doing in a closet with Laura? Where did they meet? And how do Katie and Leslie know Jaime??" (Which is absolutely hilarious looking back since I totally had a secret suspicion on the way over...Dave was really pushing me out the door, it was a weird time....but seriously I had finally RSVP'd that I could in fact go the day before. There's no way. Really, I should stop being so self-centered, I thought.)
(Oh! Another fabulous Dave side note. I had actually RSVP'd that I couldn't go earlier because Dave had a ticket to a Blazer game which was already on the calendar so I needed to be home with the kids. But! He sold his ticket to one of his friends, convincing me that the friend has actually randomly asked for it, so if I wanted to go to Jaime's girls night....)
But no. Emily, fabulous Emily, had been emailing and putting ideas in people's heads and between she and Dave and Jaime & Leslie and I don't even know all the details of who I'm leaving out, they organized me my first birthday party ever.
Dave even tried to fly Emily out from the depths of Utah to come be there. (Huge tears inducing Awww!!) (And you should know I'm not a crier. I hate crying.)
They gave me presents! They took me to dessert at Papa Haydyn's where we tried just about everything on the menu and where even more friends were waiting. (Apparently this was the wrong night to choose to be late!) They took me back to Jaime's house and played games that I would like after Dave warned them I hate strategy games. It was fabulous.
And then. And then! Approximately twoish hours after I told Dave I'd probably be home I got a sweetly worded text hoping I was having fun (which I learned later was Dave's way of making sure I was still alive and not wrecked on the side of the road somewhere). When I came home there was more appreciative crying (really the only response I seem to have these days) and I noticed that Dave had been cleaning! And further reorganizing and making things nice!
AND, and this is a big "and", on the stereo, my favorite Garth Brooks CD from way back in high school days. This is a very big deal for a couple reasons. One: Dave likes music. He cares about it a lot. He has a lot of opinions about it. I don't usually - so long as it isn't loud. Two: Dave is not a Garth fan. Three: In our lives, this CD is played at one and pretty much only one specific time - On a road trip, when Dave has driven all day and I get a shift in the late night to get us home and am trying to be quite alert and awake. Then Garth Brooks, No Fences, comes on full volume and I sing along at the top of my voice (throwing in a good amount of twang) while everyone else sleeps. (They sleep through it, really. It's pretty amazing.) Fourth: He totally had to plan ahead and snag it out of the van to have it at home. And finally, a Fifth reason this was such a big deal: He'd had it on, on repeat, for at least two hours, waiting for me to get there.
And that, my friends, was pretty much the best birthday I've ever experienced.
