When Joanna came to visit a few months ago she was talking about how her birthday last year was terrible. I knew we would at home visiting over her birthday so Autumn and I planned a surprise birthday party to make up for last year.
Autumn was housesitting for her aunt so we made plans to meet there then go out for a while. Joanna wouldn’t suspect a thing. As I was leaving for Aunt Jen’s around 3 o’clock, Joanna called and said she was still driving home from vacation and wouldn’t be able to meet until 7, two hours later than we planned. This time change gave Autumn and I more than enough time to make the meal, frost the cake and decorate the house. Instead of making hay while the sun shone, we took our sweet time making sangria, discussing people we know who turned out better than we expected, and generally not doing much of anything.
Then Joanna texted at 5:52 and said she was on her way. CUE PANIC MODE.
We literally smacked into each other running opposite directions through the same doorway. We didn’t think through a few small details of the party which is how we ended up taping the banner to the wall with electrical tape. Contrary to how it looks, X does not mark the spot. We did not have a pirate themed party.
Joanna was completely surprised. She cried partly from shock and partly because she was tired. After she stopped we asked how her birthday turned out this year. She answered, “Not well when you consider I hit a motorcycle.” There’s always next year.
When Autumn and I got together for party planning we took to pinterest for ideas. Autumn looked up “cakes for nerds” but nixed that idea when all the cakes were multi-level hobbit homes or detailed Darth Vaders. Joanna would have loved either option but our cake decorating skilz have limits. We decided on a Scrabble theme. We play Scrabble every time we’re together so it seemed the most appropriate.
We planned on making this Scrabble board with words that have meaning in our friendship before Joanna arrived but again, no time. We made it together after supper and I think it was more fun that way.
Autumn is my only friend whose hair colors match her floral shirt. She is always changing her hair color and wearing the funkiest accessories. She goes to week long music festivals and is the friend with the bar stories. Joanna is the blunt one who say what she thinks. She also says things like “When I go for my Masters…” which I assure is NOT a sentence you will hear from Autumn or I. I round out the trio by being the one who wears the birthday girl’s discarded tiara. Somebody has to be the princess.
This is really awesome!!! 🙂
This is so sweet! What good friends you are! 🙂 I love how you spent time talking about people who turned out better than you expected. I love conversations like that lol! I hope next year she doesn't hit a motorcycle.