A Surprising Week

Today, 7 October marks one week since my surprise birthday party. My sister and two good friends had planned a surprise for me for September 30. My birthday actually fell on the day after, but since that day would be a Monday and not everyone would be able to meet up at the same time, they decided to meet up the day before on Sunday.

I absolutely loved the surprise and was genuinely surprised. But let me start from the beginning.

I know I had asked my friends to have my party the Sunday before my birthday so that when the day came, I could post a nice photo to Instagram. So that's the expectation I had up until September 29. I was in my room with my sister, where we were sitting on our beds using our phones. She suddenly asked me, was it okay if I just went out with her tomorrow, since our two friends A and H suddenly had plans and couldn't make it. I was like, okay, sure. She said we could have my real party next week, and that was fine with me.

So when Sunday came, I looked all forward to the outing. My sister said we would leave at 2, so I got ready by then. When she came home from karate class, she asked me could we leave by 3 instead since she needed to shower and that, and I was like sure. And then I asked her, "Can we go to the mall after?"

She wasn't looking my way, but she paused. "Sssure... why?"

"I need to buy polish. And some other things."

She responded in the affirmative.

"Ooh! Maybe we can boba after too!" I added.

She responded in the affirmative again.

Finally, the time came for us to leave, and so we were on our way. When we finally reached the place, the parking lot was somewhat full and the only places we could find were 30 minute parking. "Why don't we just go in 30 minute parking?" I asked. "We won't be here for that long."

"Yeah... I mean..." My sister fell silent and drove out of the lot, saying she was going to find another place.

We finally parked next to a curb somewhat across from the restaurant. We walked towards the restaurant and inside. The first thing I saw were some balloons, and then the color teal shooting upwards.

"Surprise!" said H.
"Happy birthday!" said A (who was wearing teal).

My mind then processed the situation and I realized it was all a surprise for me. I couldn't explain the feeling I had. I was surprised, for sure. I hadn't been expecting this at all. I genuinely believed this was just an outing with my sister and I had already planned out the whole afternoon in my mind. I think I was in shock because I really didn't know what to say.

A put a birthday hat on my head. I took my seat and we all looked at the menu. When the waiter came by, he asked us what we would like to order, and then he looked at me. "Happy birthday!"

"Thank you!" I said in response, feeling honored.


We ate our food, and then we left the restaurant. Someone outside of the restaurant sitting at a table called out "Happy birthday" to me, and I said thank you again, happy for the attention.

We all piled into my sister's car, because A had parked somewhere a lot farther than where the restaurant was. My sister drove to the lot where they were, and then I remember being surprised when I heard my sister or H mention something about a park. What, we're going to a park too? They really remembered that part that I asked for! As you might be able to tell, I'm not quick to show my emotions or feelings, so they didn't know I wasn't expecting a park outing. Or the German chocolate cake and maple icing donuts. Or the presents. Or the playing cards. In fact, I don't even know what I was expecting. The surprises just kept coming. And they had gotten me everything I asked for to the T. The cake, the donuts, the park, all of it.

We packed up with the gift bags, food, and games, and headed out to find a place to sit. Once we were settled, they all had me open up gifts. After that we played a game of B.S., and after that we pretty much just started laying down and talking about who knows what. At one point a gnat flew in front of my face and I slapped it into death. "What kind of bug even is that?" I asked.

"A gnat," said H in the most hilarious way she could, and I started laughing. "Nyaaaaaat," I repeated, and I started getting into a laughing fit. And those who know me, know my laughing fits last for a very long time. I started laughing, then H started laughing because my sister was laughing plus snorting because she had allergies. I didn't notice till maybe a few seconds later that A had seized my phone and was filming us. Finally, I don't know when, but we stopped laughing and started getting to serious matters. I think the only reason we stopped was because I needed to go pee.

That laughing fit had honestly made my day, and the little party was more than I could ever ask for. It wasn't even my actual birthday at that point, but it really felt like it was. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life who I can call my friends. Even better, my family.

all the love and the hugssss <3 I wuv you my beebeessss. you guys are the best. you guys are blessings.

Anyway, onto the next day, October 1st, my actual birthday. The night hadn't been well, for I had woken up once at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep until about an hour and a half later. To make matters somewhat worse, I experienced a sleep paralysis episode. Regardless, I woke up right to my 8:30 alarm, went to have some breakfast, which was the birthday cake from the day before and my maple donuts. Then I started looking for my USB drive so I could start right away on my homework so I could be free the rest of the day. Usually I have my USB hanging on my keychain, but it wasn't there. Sometimes I take it off the chain in class to plug it into the computer at school, so I started looking for it inside my backpack. I finally came to the conclusion that I couldn't find my USB anywhere. It was lost. I began to feel tears coming on and my voice began to vibrate and weaken. This could not be happening. Not again.

Quick flashback to last year because I don't think I ever posted about it on my blog. Basically, I was taking a photography class at the time. I think I was in the lab trying to do my homework, and I had inserted my memory card into the computer. But there wasn't anything popping up on the computer showing that my card was in. I know any type of memory holder like a flash drive or memory card should be properly ejected from the computer before being pulled out of the USB port, but how could I properly eject my card if I couldn't locate it on the computer? It was just my luck to choose a crappy computer to use.

Well, I concluded, if the card wasn't showing up on the computer, then maybe it wasn't in the computer yet, and I could safely physically eject it without there being any problems. After a long moment of consideration, I pulled it out. And at that moment, my worst fears were confirmed. A pop-up showed on the computer saying my card had not been ejected properly. To make a long story short mostly because I don't remember what else happened after that, I had the lab assistant come to help me, and then he asked me to go to my teacher and have her look at the card. Unfortunately, the card had been corrupted, and I'd lost all my files. All my hard work, all my preparation for the photoshoot I had done. And the thing was, I'd had my sister help me with the photoshoot. What if she wouldn't be willing to help redo it? The thought of that, and of my files being gone forever, told me I should be crying, and that's what I did. In front of the lab assistant and all the other students there. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I could barely speak. I told the lab assistant I was sorry for my behavior, as in not being able to respond to him because I was crying, and he said in such a caring tone, "It's fine, you seem genuinely upset."

After attempting to say my goodbyes, I left the lab. In the end, I bought a new memory card at Walgreens, and my sister was willing to do the shoot again. Plus she bought me boba on her way home from school, before even knowing about the entire memory card drama. And that made my horrible day a whole lot better. <3

Anyway, back to this story about my missing USB. I had already reached my breaking point, but I fought the tears because my siblings were still home and I didn't want to cry in front of them. At least in front of my brother. My sister has seen me cry so many times and I'm a lot closer with her than any other family member so she's the only one I would ever really allow to see me cry.

In the end, I got a new USB, I redid my homework, and H took me out for free birthday food before sending me to school. Apparently when trying to get free stuff from Starbucks you can't just up and ask for it; you need to be registered with their app. So since I don't have mobile data, H did that for me on her phone, bless her soul, and we got a venti mocha frappucino which was DELICIOUS and it made my day. After that we went to YogurtZone, which surprisingly doesn't do free birthday food. Regardless, H and I bought some froyo to share. After talking for a while, we made our way to my school. H's mom had asked her to bring home 6 dollars, and H didn't have any cash on her, so I gave H a 20 bill and said she could get it broken down at my school's cashier office, then pay me back after. I took her to the cashier, and we waited in line. The time was very close to my class time, and I said it was okay to go a little late since my teacher comes late sometimes, plus my class building was only a 3 minute walk away. Our turn still didn't come, so I decided to leave for my class and leave H to it. I made it to class just before my teacher came walking into the room, conveniently.

Now I have to mention that on this day I was having a sort of cold, and I kept sniffling and sneezing. I talked to my classmate St about the entire thumb drive fiasco, and about it being my birthday. "Oh, happy birthday!" she said. "What are you doing here?"

At one point later in class, I sneezed, and St and Y said bless you at the same time. They then looked at each other and said, "I said it first!"

Grinning, I said, "I heard you both at the same time." Oh, how blessed I was. Literally.

After class, St took me home because she didn't want me waiting so late for my dad to come get me. Bless her kind soul. She even told me to adjust the AC to my liking because she knew I was sick and didn't want it to get worse with the cold temperature. All the blessings <3

So, that ended that day. The next day, my sister, A, H, and I were all going to go see The Nun in theater. So, after my tutoring session, H picked me up from the tutee's house and we went on our way to the theater. A met us there, and later, my sister, and then we all went into the theater.

The movie was pretty scary, and it's been almost a week now and I still think about it. Thankfully, I don't have any nightmares, but I just keep imagining things. But anyway, it was a great time spent with my friends, and an end brought to my birthday celebration. These three days were the best days of my life, and my best ever birthday celebration in my life so far. I am grateful and blessed to have friends like my sister and A and H. I am blessed to have caring classmates like St and Y. And I am grateful to have such good memories with them all.

Later in the week, I found my USB drive in my Thursday classroom, stuck in the computer I always use, and all my files were still on it :) that made me happy. So, it's been a great week. A surprising week.

Until next time! :)

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