Surprise!

Marc has outdone himself. Two years ago, I got conned into a surprise party for my 28th birthday under the guise of our friends wanting a demonstration of our Dyson vacuum. Yeah, let me tell you how awesome it is having pictures taken of me walking into a room full of friends toting a vacuum cleaner. Anyway, since I'd kind of whined before that party about not ever having a surprise party thrown for me, I expected that was my one for my lifetime.

Well...

On Thursday, Marc told me that my gift wouldn't be here until Saturday. That's fine. I could wait. I "knew" I was getting my steak dinner on Saturday, so I'd just wait for my gift and my dinner. We didn't do anything on Friday evening. Saturday, I got up early (for a weekend, anyway) and went to Laura's for the Great Exchange. We dug through piles of clothing for a couple of hours, but I had strict instructions from Marc to be home by 12:30 for a surprise of some sort. I got home at 12:20 with my bag of new/exchanged clothing, and Marc led me upstairs to the bedroom. I had no idea what to expect. When we entered the room, I saw a suitcase on the bed, half full with Marc's stuff. He told me to pack for the night--something nice to wear to dinner, and nothing special for Sunday. He told me that the first stop would be at the Portland Spa for a facial. Yay!

So, I packed a few things and headed back downstairs. I asked if Marc was getting something done at the spa, too. His response? "Maybe.........maybe not." I told him that he better because he deserved it. The appointment was at 1:30, so we left around 1:00. When we walked in, Marc told the two ladies at the desk my name. One of them stood up and asked the two of us to follow her back. The other asked, "Is he getting a service, too?"--which I thought was kind of strange because they ought to have a good idea of who's doing what, considering that they only have 4 rooms to book at a time.

We followed lady 1 back to the waiting room, and as she opened the door, I registered that there were already several people sitting in the room. Again, this was weird because there are only a few rooms, so at most, only 4 people should have an appointment at any one time. As I stepped into the room, it was even weirder for me to realize that I *knew* all of the people in the room! It was Mike, Diane, Andy, and Jo--all the way from the Seattle/Tacoma area! Surprise for me! Turns out, the other girls were scheduled for massages while I got my facial; the guys walked down the street for some grub while we enjoyed our pampering.

Next surprise was our hotel for the night--The Hotel Vintage Plaza. Marc and I shared a townhouse (2-story) suite with Mike and Diane; Andy and Jo got their own room. After we started to get settled in, there was a knock on the door. A hotel employee brought in a cake for me. Mike and Diane got it from a "bakery" up in Seattle. It was cause for much laughter! We walked down to Pioneer Place to do some shopping. I scored a couple of cool shirts from Guess. Then we came back to get dressed for my steak dinner.

I knew we had reservations for 7:15. I didn't know where. We were right next door to a steakhouse, so I was guessing... but I was wrong. We turned the opposite way out the front door of the hotel and started walking down the street. I noticed Typhoon and pointed it out because I didn't know there was a location there. Marc and everyone paused as I continued walking past it, and Marc said something like, "Change of plans. We're having dinner here." I was thoroughly confused. Typhoon is Thai food--not steak. What's going on? As we waited to be seated, Marc explained that he'd already made these reservations before I said I wanted a steak dinner, and promised we'd get steak another time. Okay, whatever! I'm easy!

The hostess showed us the way back, and I started noticing other familiar faces... a bunch of people from work, PNWX, other random friends... holy crap!! It was another surprise party!! How many people actually fall victim to 2 surprise parties in 3 years--and are honestly surprised? Well, I'm one. Maybe there are others, but I bet there aren't many. In all, there were 22 of us there for dinner. It was awesome! After more than a month of planning, coordinating, and threatening people to keep their mouths shut, Marc had pulled it off. And he claims that this is it--no more surprises. We'll see... though at this point, I'm going to start suspecting it every year. Haha!

Now, my big problem is that I've never pulled off something so spectacular for Marc. I have a few years before his next milestone to plan something fabulous, though. That should give me plenty of time to think of something good.