The Christmas in November

Have you ever been involved in a well-executed surprise party? It's rare. Have you ever been the subject of a well-executed surprise party? Rarer still. This past weekend, I had the wool pulled over my eyes like you wouldn't believe.

It was Saturday night, and my bandmates Lana and Stefan had just picked me up because we were going out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. I admittedly was fine with a low-key weekend because I had been busy all week with assignments, and I needed the weekend to study for a critical Monday exam. I didn't plan anything big for my birthday because of this (and also because it seemed like a bunch of my friends were going to be out of town or otherwise occupied this weekend...), so I was fine enjoying dinner with my favourite guitarist and drummer. At least I thought I was fine with it; I later had a couple different people tell me that I had been mopey during the days leading up to my birthday. Truth told, I had a small compunction about the dinner, feeling like I was a little bit of a charity case for Lana and Stefan.

As we rounded the bend onto the main street that would take us to the new Chinese joint Blue Rice (a terrible name by any measure), Lana informed us that she had forgotten her wallet, and that we would have to stop by her place to pick it up first. This was not unbefitting of Lana's usual character, so I didn't bat an eye at our detour. To sweeten the pot for us, she claimed she had just set up her drum kit in the basement, and naturally we would want to see that shit.

So we all went inside the condo to see the drums. Except the drum kit was very much unassembled, and in its place was a surprise party waiting for yours truly.