09.01.07

Birthday weekend

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:18 pm by apalaghita

Friday August 26 2007
4:45 PM
The phone rings. I’ve been waiting for this call all afternoon.

“Be ready by 7 PM. I’ll call you again and tell you where to meet me.”

I relax – I have plenty of time to figure out my outfit and even chill a bit with one of my favorite TV shows (since Daryl is not home and I don’t have to share the remote). All in all – a good start to my birthday weekend.

And if you wonder what on earth is going on – my husband wanted to surprise me for my birthday by not telling me the restaurant he chose for dinner.

7:20PM
I have my birthday outfit on and the make-up done. And still no call. I am starving – where on earth is my husband? … this better be one great birthday surprise.

Finally, the phone rings – “Meet me at Mediterra” The restaurant is just a block down the street from our apartment so I can wear my cute shoes. I leave the apartment and start walking purposefully since my stomach is growling.

Out of the blue – I hear this voice from behind me “Excuse me – do you know the time?” The voice sounds vaguely familiar but I do not worry too much since I only know five or six people in the entire city of Toronto. I turn my head to answer and I see a mass of curly black hair surrounding an oddly familiar face. But it could not be, because that face belongs to my good friend Jeannette who lives in San Diego.

Before I can recover, another very familiar face appears to my right - my friend Becca’s who lives in Maryland. I can no longer deny what I am seeing – my best friends are here – on a sidewalk in downtown Toronto. And the good news is - no matter how many times I blink – they’re still here.

After waiting behind a bush to witness the big surprise, the male half of the couples - Daryl and Becca’s husband (Dave) - come our to say hi. After a quick exchange, Becca, Jeannette and a very dazed and confused Ana head over to a girls’ only birthday dinner while the boys are headed to the local pub.

After dinner we all came back to our apartment for some good old talking. Everybody seemed so tired, that I had to suggest they head back to the hotel. This is when I found out that the surprise was not over. After Daryl exchanged some sideway glances with everybody he said: “Well, actually we’re all waiting for your brother to arrive – but his plane was late so he will not be arriving until after midnight.”

Turns our everybody was trying to stay awake to see the last part of my surprise - the arrival of Tudor and Nicol. But – as they were all very tired, Becca, Dave, and Jeannette decided to head out to the hotel.

But not five minutes went by and all of them came back. Becca forgot her camera. She came back upstairs and I helped her look for it by the sofa. When I turn around… there is my brother and Nicol… Although I knew they were coming, it was still surreal to see them standing in the middle of my living room. The only downside is that I let out such a high pitched scream that everybody in the room was deafened for quite some time.

Only Becca did not forget her camera after all – they just saw my brother’s cab arriving as they were leaving the building so they decided to head back upstairs and play the “left my camera behind” card.

The weekend was marvelous, but I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Needless to say it involved a lot of eating (from Peruvian to Nutella crepes), and quite a bit of walking around town. And my favorite – afternoon tea, where Alison joined us for a three way birthday celebration (Alison, Nicol, and me).

Somehow, sharing my new city with my old friends makes it feel more like home.

Oh yeah… and Daryl definitely earned the “best birthday surprise ever” prize. Now I have to come up with something equally cool for his birthday – any ideas?

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