...My 24th Birthday

(Edited to meet certain standards set forth by my Canadian readership)

In 2006, Mandy decided to do something for me that I had always wanted but no one ever did....throw me a surprise party for my birthday. Now readers, many of you have never met my ex-wife before but one of her most endearing qualities is her inability to keep something like this a secret. Anytime there's a surprise involved, she just couldn't keep it quiet or she would be so excited that she'd inadvertently give it away. Usually every year for Christmas she would ask everyone weeks in advance if she could tell them what she got them.

For as long as we had been together I had always said that I wanted someone to throw me a surprise birthday party. She tried her best but I saw it coming a mile away. It was scheduled to happen after a work shift close to my birthday. As I was pulling into the driveway to my house in Mesa, Mandy came running out to tell me to go across the street and go Christmas shopping with Jenny. She could have played it so much cooler but there was this excited panic in her that stressed that I not go home to change but proceed directly across the street to Jenny. I decided to play along and be a good sport so I went across the street where Jenny was ready to take me to the mall and look at video games to buy Danny for Christmas.

Jenny was much cooler than Mandy was about everything but even then Jenny isn't (in my experience anyways) the best liar. I could tell something was up but I continued to play dumb. We went to the mall and shopped for a bit and of course Jenny kept looking at the time because she clearly had a deadline where she was supposed to get me back home for the party.

When we finally did make it back, we walked over to my house and I tried to open the door. I got it about an inch open before Mandy slammed it on the other side and locked it. I could hear her on the other end not knowing what to do since she had pretty much denied me entrance into my home for no good reason. She panicked and then said the first thing she could think of which was "You can't come in yet!......" I stood there with Jenny who could hardly contain herself with the ridiculousness of the situation. After about 30 seconds she then shouted through the door, "OK, you can come in now!" Jenny and I walked through the door and of course all my friends were there waiting and said "Surprise!"

The entire thing was no surprise but the effort and gesture were what really counted. It was one of the best birthdays I'd ever had. Since then I have yet to have someone do something similar for me. When you're the guy who does the above and beyond stuff for everyone else it's sometimes a little sad that people rarely can return the favors but when they do it makes it all the more special. I'm not necessarily saying that it should be me, but think of a good friend of yours and decide to do something that's a little above and beyond for them, because you never know how far such a gesture can go. For all you know, you could end up creating a happy memory that someone remembers for the rest of their life.

And that's the story of my 24th birthday.