Carrie has been trying to accomplish this for a while. Our first Christmas, she was going to surprise me by learning how to cook sushi. I ruined this, by sneaking up on her in the grocery store (trying to scare her, because I'm a turd) while she was looking at a "make your own sushi kit." Then there was the time she took off work to surprise me at my apartment and my ADHD senses heard keys jingling and I opened the door and surprised her with a 'hello.' Then there was the surprise birthday gifts. The only problem was she ordered them online. I have the credit card set up to alert me whenever an online charge is made to prevent identity theft and quickly tracked down the errant (and no longer surprising) charge. The list goes on and on. Surprising me has become something of a challenge that my wife takes on from time to time.
Today was one of those days.
Yesterday, my friend, Bill, called me to ask if I could help him move some furniture for his new apartment. I couldn't think of any interfering tasks, so I agreed. It was a good chance to see a few friends, help someone out, and get exercise all at the same time. Carrie and I went to an early church service and did our best to take care of some chores so that helping Bill wouldn't cause a backlog. Of course, the stink was in on it the whole time! I thought it a little odd when Carrie made me sushi for lunch. Then I was even more odd when Bill seemed like he was in no hurry to meet his dad and brother with the van. There were other events as well, but not enough to fully tip me off. I left the house wondering if today was going to be one of those unique days that stand out in memory. I was fully sold on the fact I was going on a moving errand. Bill even made a wrong turn on the way and we ended up on a gravel road, rural neighborhood further blinding me from what was happening.
The neighborhood we ended up in was right next to a speedway. Bill told me he wanted to stop and ask for directions. Naively, I believed him. I half thought that he just wanted to take a quick opportunity to peak at the raceway, because of his love for cars. I did think it odd when we were standing in line to ask for directions. I also found it hilarious that he seemed unwilling to call his brother or dad to ask for directions. Boy, did I turn out to be laughing for the wrong reasons!
Carrie found a groupon deal for me to drive a stock car!!! It was a quarter-mile oval track, 15 laps, and then 5 riding along with a professional to try and scare the beejeebers out of me! Bill then pulled out a card saying "Happy First Father's Day!" Awesome! It also had me feeling a little guilty I hadn't pulled off something equally incredible for Carrie's first Mother's Day. I was a little in shock at this point.
Three and a half hours later, Bill and I had developed sunburns and storm-clouds were brewing on the horizon. No stock car was driven by me. A wealth of technical difficulties (probably caused by the 98 degree weather on the track) kept taking out the cars and the long line of people waiting for their turn failed to shrink. I had to settle for a slip of paper and a reschedule. Sadly, the day didn't turn out the way Carrie had intended. It was a good story in its own right. Bill and I encountered a scorching sun, a hidden McDonald's, and some crazy old man trying to teach us the 'politician's creed' at a 7-11.
In other news, I suck. It seems like I can't get this one damned task done. Yesterday, I was going to do it, but then my mom called to let me know they were picking Shane and I up two hours early for Patrick's Graduation (Happy Graduation, bro!). Then, they wanted to go out to eat and (without a car) I didn't get home until after the post office closed. On Monday, I left something I needed at home. Tuesday, I remembered to bring it, but then got busy at work and forgot about it. Wash rinse and repeat the busy work days until I found myself in a post office on Friday that had more people crammed into than the premiere of a new Harry Potter movie. I ended up going home thinking it would be easy to do what needed to be done Saturday morning (which turned out to be a bad choice). So yeah....I'm thrilled that I got to be surprised today, but it also prevented me from running some errands I had intended to do today. I'll feel less guilty if I can get everything in the mail tomorrow morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment