Oh My Goff

So, it’s time for a big catch-up session. Since the Polebridge trip, lots has happened….

Tense conversations ruled the airwaves between my parents and me for a couple months because I was keeping a horrible, dirty secret from them; I was planning to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday by flying out to L.A. and didn’t want to give it away (plus I hated flat out lying to them). An elaborate web of deceit and misdirection confused my poor mother  before the glory was revealed. Originally she believed that she was simply going to spend a weekend away with my dad alone at some beach cottages in San Diego. In reality, the whole side of my dad’s family plus my siblings and I would be there. The basic outline for the plan was this:
Step 1. Tell family I can’t get vacation  until June.
Step 2. I fly in a few days before mom’s birthday at the end of April. Only my sister knows.
Step 3. I show up unannounced at the birthday dinner at Bossa Nova to surprise mom with flowers.
Step 4. I lie to mom again by telling her that I’m only in town for that night and have to fly back the next day.
Step 5. Surprise her again when the family meets up with her in San Diego for the weekend. (She thought it was only going to be herself and my dad there).
Step 6. Profit.
The outcome was utter success in every sense possible. My family was delighted to see me and I them…in fact, it was one of the best times we’ve had together as a family that I can remember. God definitely blessed the trip and I’m very thankful for the time I had with my mother.

Since I was in So Cal for 10 days, I had oodles of time to spend with friends as well. Sean and Sheena were kind enough to open their home and allowed me to stay with them most of the time I was in Los Angeles. It was as if I’d never left last year…we all got along crazily like old times Wii sports and WarioWare concluded nearly every night I slept over. Our mutual friend from Hawaii, Kevin, was in town (we kinda planned it this way) so we invited him over for some extra good times. A post-modern Family Dinner night took place on the first Wednesday of the trip, filled with old and new friends, food, jenga, and twister. I was a little surprised by my own reaction to some of the people/situations I hadn’t seen/been in for awhile, but I think it’s simply part of growing up. Becoming more tolerant of some things and less tolerant of others, finding myself – blah blah blah. I still love everyone that I did before I left in 2008. I just know that some friendships have already sailed, and that’s okay. Getting to concentrate on spending time with people I cared about most was a good thing. I’ll probably blog about this more later on, but for now I’m very content and satisfied with how the trip went overall, and I don’t think I’d change a thing.

In other news, here we are in the middle of May, and there was freezing rain today as I made the 5-minute drive to Costco. What the heck?