Last Sunday was my boyfriend’s birthday. Considering his mom had called me on August 27th to discuss the details of this momentous occasion, I had high hopes for this day. You see, Jason had been saying that he wanted a surprise party. And how the heck do you throw a legit surprise party for the guy who has basically sent out a royal decree that he must be surprised during those 24 hours?
Well, I’ll give you a brief outline; here’s how the process went. First we decided to throw the party at his mom’s house, and that lasted all of three days before Jason declared that he Did Not Want a Party at His Mom’s House, don’t even think about it. “Okay,” I thought, “I have the perfect idea.” I then sent an email to his friends asking if they would be interested in getting together and surprising him with a game of laser tag. He is always talking about laser tag. And anime cartoons. But I figured laser tag was the way to go, everyone was into it, and then came Labor Day. On Labor Day, I was informed that his dad and step-mom wanted to throw him a surprise party. “Okay,” I thought, as I coolly accepted that all of my plans were likely not going to work out.
Let me let you in on a little secret: I LIKE BEING IN CONTROL. I like making plans. I am, how you say, a planner. Now you would never guess this, because I usually come off as being pretty reserved and agreeable when in most social situations, but holy hell, do I love to dictate What Will Happen. So this whole hodge-podge of everyone pulling to get their way on his birthday was a real lesson in patience for me.
Having said that and making myself out (pretty accurately) to be a monster, this control-freak condition of mine is equally crippling because – HA! Even when I do end up planning everything, things rarely turn out the way I had intended. For example, on Saturday night, I made Jason cupcakes while he was at a hockey game. I made them from scratch – a first for me. And I decorated the house with balloons and wrapped his present. It was a lovely display, really.

And then when Jason got home, before he saw any of this, I told him about a conversation I had with my mom earlier in the day in which I told her, “I’m making cupcakes tonight!” This information was totally unnecessary to my actual point at the time; I just decided to include this snippet because gosh, cupcakes are good. And then I realized that I had just flat-out told him the surprise and went into the corner to cry while he laughed and laughed. Cool.
Luckily, I did manage to surprise him by taking him to a park and renting a tandem bicycle. It was pretty magical because all I could think about was how we were just like the couple in that song, “Daisy, Daisy, give me your hand, I do… blah blah, and a bicycle built for two!” Also, I imagined myself as Juno riding her bike with her legs up in the air. I don’t recall if this actually happened in the movie or if I’m making it up, though. Here is a dramatic re-creation of what I looked like flying through the park:

And then, of course, we come to the surprise party. I was absolutely sure that we had him fooled and that we’d pull it off. So sure, in fact, that 2 hours before the party, I wrote this on Twitter: “2 hours until my boyfriend’s surprise party and I still haven’t let it slip! Knock on wood…” And I would say that up until about 20 minutes before the party, he still had no idea. But as we were on our way over to his dad’s house, he said, “Are you texting everyone to let them know when we’ll be there so that they can hide behind their chairs?” What! What a stinker! I had actually only sent two VERY SHORT texts, one to his sister and the other to his mom. And I had sent them while he was on the phone. Note to self: Do not try to surprise boyfriend again. (Of course, the birthday card he had gotten on Friday from his grandma had said, “Dear Jason, sorry we can’t make it to your party!” but he couldn’t read her handwriting and had given it to me to translate. I mumbled a few words and then threw it in the guest room).


It was still a good time, though, and the whole thing definitely taught me to chill out a bit. Does anyone still say “chill out?” It reminds me of Charles in Charge. Anyway, yes, I need to relax more and not get so tied up in my “planning.” Because really, spending all night secretly baking cupcakes and burning myself on the oven door only to openly confess exactly what I had been up to is pretty hilarious.