Surprise

Last night, Mr. Spy and I had the privilege of being guests at a surprise party thrown by Mr. Unfocused and a friend for Green-Eyed Siren’s 40th birthday, which was on Wednesday. The guest of honor was most definitely surprised.

Because we are not old fogies but modern people who are hip to the ways of Web 2.0 (are we still in 2.0? Not yet 2.1?), the entire party was planned via facebook. I’d knew most of the people in attendance, but the few I didn’t I recognized from facebook updates. This is a strange new world we live in.

We arrived on schedule at the restaurant, dove into the dark space by the bar, and emerged into a beautiful back garden, with tomato plants espaliered up the wall and roses on the table (provided by the guest of honor’s mother — it is plain to see where Siren gets her decorative skills). A few minutes after we arrived, B, co-organizer of the party and Siren’s friend “since babyhood,” says Siren, announced that she’d received a text message from Mr. Unfocused. They were en route! B filled us in on the ruse. Mr. Unfocused and Siren were supposed to be meeting B for a dinner to celebrate their birthdays (Mr Unfocused reaches the big 4-0 on Tuesday, a six-day difference that invokes frequent jokes about him having married an older woman, although to the best of my knowledge no one has yet had the temerity to call Siren a “cougar”). B had told Siren that she’d meet them outside, because she didn’t want to sit at the bar alone. Later in the evening, she said that she didn’t find this odd (despite the fact that B is no shrinking violet) because “B is a very attractive woman. I can totally understand why she wouldn’t want to sit in a bar alone.” B grabbed her birthday present off the gift table (for authenticity) and headed out to the street, first informing another guest (her brother, I think, although I didn’t actually get to verify this) to pull out his cell phone that she’d send him a message when they were heading in. Minutes later, we all leapt up to yell surprise as Siren rounded the corner. It looked like she didn’t know what had happened at first, she froze on the spot, started to cry, and then ran around hugging everyone.

We had a lovely evening, full of good wine and tasty food, and lots of old stories. There were two delicious cakes from the legendary Lutz’s, one each for Mr. Unfocused and Siren, two repetitions of off-key “Happy Birthday,” and lots of celebratory toasts.

We drove home feeling good to find that Mr. Spy’s sister, who’d been babysitting, had left doughnuts in the refrigerator for breakfast. This weekend is shaping up extremely well.