Monday, September 17, 2007

The Best Present Ever! Turning 30...

It all started on Tuesday afternoon two days before my 30th birthday when I recieved a mysterious email from shaunaesamazingrace@gmail.com. It announced a great race to find out what I was going to do for my 30th birthday. I immediately thought of Jon who had told me he had recently made email addresses for the kids for when their older. Ah-ha! I thought, it's him and he's not going to get away with all this sneakiness. I'll find out what he's up to and figure it all out.
The first clue: "Be on 1012 at 1100" I thought of flights and googled airlines with flights 1012, but when I called Jon later and told him about the emails and my idea, he said I was dreaming if I was going to be flying anywhere for my birthday. I totally dropped that idea and googled more ideas. 1o12 also happens to be the chemical name for saphire.. This is looking good I thought.
The next clue "I'll see you in blue at a memorial for June 4, 1942" Google came up with The Battle of Midway from World War II. I thought of DC's memorials. There's tons there. I bet I'm meeting him for lunch on my birthday and we'll picnic at a World War II memorial.
The 3rd clue- "You need to research The curse of the billy goat"- Google came up with a story about a man who went to a Chicago Cubs game with a goat in tow. When he was later kicked out, he cursed the stadium, that they would never win until they accepted and loved the goat. They went on a two year losing streak. I found out there was a restuarant chain called The Billy Goat Curse Tavern and Grill" that's done very well and has one in DC.
By the end of Tuesday, I had a head full of clues, used up all my free time researching on the internet, and had just had Ashton's first day of Kindergarten. I had a huge headache from the chaos of everything.
Meanwhile, Jon calls me and tells me there's more clues in my email that I need to look at, and he-ha's as he hears me read them and my exasperated replies.
Wednesday I got a nice clue... a map so it says. It is a table with two columns, one side reading left, right, left, left, and the other mileage. Seems easy enough, except on the bottom it says "Oops the mileage got all mixed up." I wasn't swearing just telling Jon I wasn't going to drive downtown DC on my own to eat lunch with him with confusing clues like that.
Later he sent me a bar code which I was sure was an incoded message. I printed it out, enlarged and folded it to look at it sideways. (I was really into Nancy Drew growing up) I thought I saw the word Fall. Wednesday I started getting nervous when he told me I needed to get a small suitcase with a few things in it... a swimming suit, a nice outfit, and some good walking shoes. Now my ideas where all over.. Was this going to be a mid day outing downtown? Was he taking me somewhere for the evening? Then my mothering instincts kicked in and I was worried about who would watch the kids, would I be back for Ashton after school? He said he had someone watching the kids that I trusted but it would be the last person I would think of. Jon also said his night class that night was canceled. I was still stressing about my kids, Taison who doesn't sleep through the night and was not weaned yet. I went to bed that night with another headache.
Thursday morning Jon announces he has the day off of work. OK, this is good. I'm liking this birthday present so far. We get Ashton ready for school and Jon is frantically packing my suitcase, looking at the clock and printing on the computer. That's when I notice an envelope on the table. It said "This is your last clue but it will be more confusing then them all" I didn't know if I was supposed to see this one yet, but with Jon out of the room, I didn't want to ask permission. I hurried and opened it to find.... a boarding pass Flight 1012 leaving for Chicago Midway Airport at 11:00. That was in 2 hours. I couldn't believe it. I went outside to calmly freak out and panic and get nervous. Was this real? Was it a fake boarding pass? Was there only one? Was he coming with me? I don't like doing things by myself.. ...AH! Jon came upstairs, I hid the paper, and he immediately went to the table to look for the envelope. He looked scared and thought it had gotten thrown away. "You mean this?" I ask waving it in front of him..

1 comment:

The Meesh said...

And then....? You better be telling the rest of the story! (Even though I know how it ends)