The End of a Chapter

Or: How to Surprise a gRegor

This month has been flying by; work has been busy, and I have a lot of things to get ready for my move at the end of the month next Saturday. I have been trying to spend some quality time with people before then, too.

I was surprised by friends not once, but twice recently. Well, for the first one I figured out something was up. The second one totally surprised me, though. As someone who has been a part of many surprise parties over the years, it is kind of tough to surprise me.

I had been talking with Isha last week about going to Scotty's Brewhouse. She suggested we go Thursday (the following night) and specifically said the northside location because there was a geocache nearby that she wanted to show me. That sounded a little odd to me, but I did not put much thought into it at the time.

[For the uninitiated, geocaching is basically treasure hunting using GPS. You get the coordinates of a cache online, go find the hidden container there, and share your experience online. There's usually at least a log book to sign, and many times geocachers leave a trinket / take one that someone else has left. It's a blast.]

On Thursday I got a text from Alex inviting me to Scotty's that night and geocaching afterwards. This was odd because I had already told Isha I was going. I began to think something might be up. When I showed up, I noticed Suzi's yellow car right away and knew it was a surprise. Allison, Suzi, Shawn, Josh G, Goller, Josh S, Isha, and Alex were there. I had actually just sent Shawn a message that afternoon saying that I hoped I could see him before I move. Pretty quick turnaround! :] We had a blast there and got ice cream at Handel's afterwards, despite the quite cold and windy night.

During that week, other plans were being made for Saturday. I already had plans to go to a wedding with Jenn, so we rescheduled for Sunday. The plan was to meet at Mo'Joes coffeehouse downtown, walk the canal, then get lunch. It had been a busy (good) weekend and since there had already been a surprise for me just a couple days prior, I certainly was not expecting anything on Sunday.

I got to the coffeehouse a bit early to do some reading and writing. Ron and Goller showed up, but that did not seem unusual because Ron lives fairly close. He seemed to be his normal, ornery self and when Isha showed up he (allegedly) got upset with her and left. That's what Isha told me, at least; I was away from them at the time.

Once Suzi and Jeremiah got there, the four of us started walking to the canal. Isha had looked up a geocache on her phone. Now, the canal is situated below street level, so as we're approaching the steps I saw someone on the canal that looked like Josh W, but he had a green balloon. A step or two later, I saw several more green balloons (green is my favorite color, by the way) and a lot more faces that I recognized and I realized what was happening. They yelled “surprise!” and as I turned around to say “oh my goodness,” I saw Isha was recording the whole thing.

So when we get down to where the group is, they all come over to give me the balloons and several little trinkets. They were a geocache, you see. It was a bit like Up, but thankfully I did not float away.

I was totally surprised and it was awesome. I certainly feel very loved.

Thanks to Awsm, Doug, Isha, Jeremiah, Josh S, Josh G, Josh W, Lauren, Maurice, Sally, Suzi, Ron, Goller, and everyone who was there in spirit. Thanks to Isha, Suzi, and Jeremiah for putting the whole thing together. :D I am definitely going to miss my Indianapolis friends.

You may or may not be able to see the video on Facebook (depends on the privacy settings). I hope you can, though, because it starts out with a close-up of my butt!

Here are some photos of the fun: