Surprise!

When Sean and I were first married I learned a very sad thing: He'd never had a surprise party. I know, right?  :(   So of course i had to throw him one just because. It entailed arriving at a friend's house, silly string all over the place, including right in his surprised mouth. So a solid surprise birthday, I'd say. You just have to have one in your life.

You also may know that I love to scare people. I don't scare just anyone. It's usually close family and it's been a while since when I scare Sean (who is the best), it comes at a price. I've mentioned this before.  Julian, too, is fun to scare and all too easy, but he's a little more tender in the feelings department and I laugh too wickedly in the moment so it risks not ending suuuper well. But sometimes is worth it. I choose my moments wisely.

One time I decided to visit Utah and for some reason I decided to keep it a secret from my mom. We had my sister help me out and we set up a video camera in my mom's room.  I snuck in the house, called my mom and asked her a question that would require her to go into her bedroom, I sat on the bed, and hit record. SO GOOD.  She was so shocked I think she just immediately turned her back on me like she was suddenly faced with a terrifying nightmare that she refused to accept as real.  Wait a second, this was a good surprise, Mom, right??   She may have uttered a scream though, and I think her expression was one of shock so I got some good results, (even if I am a scary nightmare one needs to have advanced knowledge to prepare for).

Needless to say though (at least for me), my mom is a lot of fun to surprise.  A Bklyn friend just put a video up on the Facebook of her surprise-visiting her mom who's on a mission in Washington.  It's awesome and guaranteed to make you cry.  Her mom screams and screams and screams. Man, there is nothing better than someone's shocked face hopefully born out of love.

This reminded me of another surprise I gave my mom that i also videotaped.  It was March of 2009. Julian was a 17-week-old grapefruit in my guts that no one knew about.  Since we had waited for quite some time for this miracle that was never going to happen, the build-up was already fantastic and perfect for some kind of setup.  Since i was a bundle of nerves,  paranoia that i would be found out beforehand and also because I just didn't know how to formulate the words that I never ever thought I'd say, I quickly devised a scheme to introduce a "game" to my family.  It was a "new game" that I had "made up" and was "super fun."  I sat at the dining room table for far too long (even for me) and after a while we began.  In attendance were my mom and dad, two sisters, brother, and his wife.  I gave them each a card with a secret phrase face down that I would further explain.  What was written:

Jen is pregnant. That's the game. You win!

Man I was so nervous. I really don't know how I kept it together. I tried to sneak my camera onto the table and hit record, knowing my mom would most likely be the jackpot of reactions.   I was right. Right at the start, her face is solid gold.  After about 30 seconds it's mostly just me snot-crying and bumbling and slurring some words together (good luck understanding me because I sure can't). Also some jokes about the "game."  But yeah, it's pretty good stuff. Bringing back some good times for me. Three cheers for using our parents' love for our own amusement at their expense!