The Mysterious Birthday Surprise

Main Characters:

Mariah

MiaJakeTamara

Date: Thursday, April 23, 2009

10:34 am
It started out as a typical Thursday morning. I woke up with a rumbly tummy, bummed that I had missed breakfast and eager for lunch to start. To pass the time I decided to call my friend Mia to see what she was up to. It turned out she was at the library in town and very preoccupied because she had to get off the phone rather quickly. Although I never thought Mia was the type to spend her day at the public library I didn't think anything of it.

As time passed I realized I had a big night ahead of me, it was my friend Mariah's 19th birthday, we had a Student Activities Appreciation Dinner to attend and in less than 24 hours I'd be turning 20.

12:16 pm
After nourishing myself with a meal at the dining hall I headed back up to the dorms. It was a windy day and I feared it might rain, putting a damper on the night's events. I tried hard to put those thoughts aside and remain optimistic about the night. As I walked down the hallway I ran into a kid Zach, who I see all the time but hardly know anything about. We said our hellos, then he continued the conversation by wishing me a happy birthday. "It's tomorrow" I responded, "But thank you!" It caught me off guard, I didn't understand how he'd know such a thing, so I assumed we were friends on Facebook and left it at that.

4:00 pm
We began to get ready. Steamboat is a rather casual town when it comes to attire, and this was a rare opportunity to dress up like we were heading to the Grammy's. As girls, we needed to be sure we had enough time to do our hair and make up. For the men who still don't understand why we need such a long time to get ready, it's because we don't like being rushed. We like taking our time and bonding with our friends while we prepare for a fun night out.

6:23 pm
We headed to Tamara's office to meet up before dinner. As we walked through the hallways and out to the car we turned a lot of heads. In a school composed of mostly males, women tend to let their guard down. We stop worrying about our hair and make up so much, and occasionally skip a shower. To see people in dresses was very out of the ordinary. We walked quickly, hoping to not bring too much attention to ourselves.

6:34pm
We arrived at The Boathouse Pub located on Yampa Street. It was a very well decorated restaurant located right on the river. The food was delectable, I ordered a Portabella Mushroom Sandwich which I'd recommend it to anyone who goes there. It's always exciting to eat out, especially when you're a poor college student and in good company. It was a bitter sweet ending to a year filled with many events such as Late Night Bingo, an Illusionist, having several bands come play, and even a CMC Talent Show.

7:42 pm
After finishing our meal, Mariah brought up the topic of dessert. She wanted some ice cream for her birthday, but was talked out of it. Instead we decided we'd go to Safeway and pick some up, then eat it in the MPR. I thought it was peculiar that Tamara suggested we eat in the dorms, since her office is located in another building and all our meetings are held there. But I once again brushed it off.

7:51pm
We were finishing our meal when Mia's mother called. She said it was important and she had to take it so she left, promising she'd meet us back at the dorms. After the bill was paid, Jake, Mariah and I headed to City Market while Tamara went to pick up her "Little Sister". When we arrived at City Market Jake instructed Mariah and I to get two giant tubs while he dropped his movie off at Blockbuster. "Why?" we asked. "There are only five of us, we don't need that much ice cream. Besides, the tubs aren't as good as the other stuff." Promising him we'd take care of it, Mariah and I went in and picked out our favorite types of ice cream. As we were picking out toppings Jake found us and kept trying to convince us to get the bigger tubs. We told him if that was what he wanted to he could go for it, but there was no way I was giving up Cookie Dough ice cream for that stuff. Finally he caved in, picked out another flavor and we checked out.

8:07pm
We arrived at the dorms. As we walked past the windows to the MPR we noticed the lights were out and there were a ton of people in there. I immediately thought it was a huge mistake deciding to meet in there because everyone would want to eat our ice cream and we only had three cartons. "Why are there so many people in there?" I asked, to which Jake responded that it must have been a movie night. Once again I should have thought harder about this because I'm on both Student Activities and RHA so I always know when events in the MPR are going on. I figured another club must have been putting an event on and brushed it off. When we walked into the MPR someone flicked the lights on and everyone yelled "SURPRISE"! They sang Happy Birthday to Mariah and I and we both stood there dumbfounded.

I would have never guessed that Mia was going to throw us a surprise party, but she did. As I looked back at the day I began to piece it all together. She never really went to the library, she was at our friends house baking cake. All of the random people that kept saying Happy Birthday thought it was my birthday because of the flyers that had been passed out. Mia's mom had never called her, she just needed an excuse to get away and set everything up. And obviously, Jake wanted to get the giant tubs because he knew we wouldn't be the only ones enjoying them.

It was a great start to my very first birthday away from home. After that we headed over to a friends house to hang out. I slept in until almost noon on my acutaul birthday, then attended a meeting for my job as a CA this summer. After relaxing for the day I ended up going to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs as the perfect way to end the night. I just want to say thank you to everyone who made it such a great couple of days!