My Amazing (and Slightly Terrifying) Birthday Surprise

Let me begin by saying that for the past few days, I’ve been barred from entering the kitchen pantry. No explanation, no reasons, just “don’t go in there.”

The latch had been thrown. On the door, a note was posted, expressly prohibiting me from going inside.

Now, fast forward to this morning.

This is what I saw when I opened my eyes this morning. And the reason why I saw this? Because I have the absolute BEST GIRLFRIEND EVER.

Today is technically my official birthday day. All weekend now, I’ve been celebrating (I got to go out for dinner on Friday, and got a home cooked meal last night). But today’s the official day.

I’m usually an early riser. On a regular weekday, I’ll get up super early so that I can check emails, do a little surfing, and work on the blog a bit before the start of the day. On average, I’ll get out of bed anywhere from 5:30 AM – 6:00 AM.

In the past, I’d stay up late and work on the blog in the evenings. But in the past year or two, I’ve gotten into the routine of doing blog stuff early in the mornings. It’s just worked out better that way, all around.

And so last night, Liz nonchalantly asked when I wanted to get up. And I mentioned I wouldn’t mind getting up “early.”

And so what happens? Crazy woman that she is, she set her alarm for 4:00 AM… snuck out of bed, and began to prep a small armada of balloons as a surprise for me.

A brief sidenote: I woke up around 5:00 AM, after hearing some light thudding (the sounds of balloons hitting the bedroom ceiling). Groggy and disoriented, I looked over and saw Liz appear at the side of my bed.

Truth be told, I was a little freaked out. To me, it seemed as though she just appeared and, ghost-like, slid right over to the side of the bed.

“Go back to sleep” is all she said, and it honestly freaked me out pretty bad. But after a second or two, I started laughing because I realized what she was up to.

A little later, after I got out of bed… I realized that the bedroom floor was also covered with balloons.

And they were in the bathroom, as well as the office.

In the hallway, between the front door and the dining room. It slowly dawned on me just how many balloons Liz worked with, to set all this up.

All along the dining room…

… and the kitchen.

In the pantry, here’s the thing I wasn’t supposed to see. I’d seen a few “party balloon boxes,” that came with their own mini-helium tank… but Liz apparently just went and rented one outright. She later explained to me that she felt she had to use ALL the helium in the tank, otherwise “she wasn’t getting her money’s worth.” :D

To date, one of the most touching things I’ve experienced was seeing Liz ride through the rain, with balloons for me tied to her scooter. She’s now topped that by filling the entire apartment with balloons, for me.

So far today, everywhere I’ve gone, every room I’ve been in… there are a ton of little reminders of how incredibly fortunate I am, to have someone like Liz in my life. Someone who’s willing to wake up at 4:00 AM, and tie off 200 balloons/ribbons, and suffer a blister to boot. That’s right – there’s over 200 balloons in the apartment (3 packs of 72). A LOT of balloons.

Since waking up, I’ve been walking around in a state of disbelief. At various points throughout the day, I kept muttering out loud to Liz “You’re crazy, you’re just… crazy.” And she just laughed.

Shuffling through a sea of balloons, occasionally kicking one up into the air, I kept thinking to myself “I’m lucky, I’m just… lucky.”

Towards the evening, the balloons started to lose their bouyancy, and slowly they began to fall from the ceiling. More and more turned into “floaters,” more or less just hanging a bit off the ground.

We ended up herding most of the balloons into one or two spots. Gathered together, this displays the sheer number of balloons a little better, I think. Looking at the shots from earlier, I don’t know if the total number of balloons really came across.

We also moved a lot of the balloons into the office, as well. It’s still a little mind-boggling, seeing them all gathered in one place like that.

Of course, this post isn’t complete without a few balloon-related links:

Unbearable Happiness – Blue Balloon
Frankfort Fall Festival: Waterballoon War
Leftover Balloons: A Plan is Formed
Leftover Balloons: Operation Freedom
Blue Balloon / Black Balloon