No Surprises for Me, Thanks
I really hate surprises. The worst kind involves people jumping out from dark hiding spots and yelling at me. Oh, I don’t hate the actual party. It’s the racing heartbeat that I don’t like. The rush of blood to my face. The uncontrollable, primordial yelp that escapes my throat if I’m scared. I just hate surprises.
Most people chalk it up to my inherent need for control, not just of my situation but of my reaction to the situation. It’s a character flaw I’m willing to accept. Unfortunately, my abhorrence of being surprised nudges other people to plot surprises against me. I hate that, too.
I say all of this because my birthday is in a week and JG loves surprising me.
It all started a few weeks ago, when I asked where we were going for dinner for the Saturday after Valentine’s Day.
“Oh, I’m not sure yet,” he said innocuously, “but I know where we’re going for your birthday.”
What?!
“Where? Have we been there before?” I was all ready to picture myself there and figure out what I was going to wear.
JG shook his head. “Nope. I’ll tell you closer to the time.”
I turned on my best wheedling voice. “Oh, come on! This is my birthday. I know you like surprising me, but shouldn’t things be as I want them to be for my birthday?”
“Fine. It’s The Melting Pot.”
“Woo hoo!”
“- or so you think!”
What?!
Not knowing where we’re going makes waiting for my birthday even worse. The mere knowledge that JG is holding this over my head is making me crazy. In response to a rather lunatic question about wardrobe (“What if I need overalls and I don’t have any?!”), JG just shook his head.
Most of the time, I love that JG knows me so well. The only down side is that he also knows exactly which buttons to push to fray my nerves. It’s not that I don’t trust him because, in the end, I know that I’ll love whatever he put together. That should be enough for me. Ultimately, I end up simply not knowing and I have a great time. But the ideal situation is that I know about it ahead of time and then enjoy it fully thereafter. I’m just saying.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I feel EXACTLY the same way! I beg to not be surprised, but I swear sometimes that makes people want to surprise me more. No! Really! I mean that I don’t like surprises! Of course, this always makes me feel like I sound ungrateful so I try to just shutup and enjoy it, but if I had my way I would never be surprised again. I am so glad I am not the only one!
February 27th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
janet - Seriously. If JG really really loved me, he wouldn’t surprise me, right? No, that’s not fair. I promise not to surprise you, at least!
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I think surprises are cute — it means that he’s thinking of you!
August 20th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
[...] Girls. Woo! We know how to party it up, let me tell you. On Saturday, JG is taking me out to an undisclosed location that he refuses to divulge and my sneaky attempts at trickery (“So where are we going, again?�) [...]