Spytastic!

Before I launch into my most wonderful spytastic 30th birthday, first thing's first. Al's jaw is officially unwired! We went first thing this morning, and it's already a huge difference-he can talk more clearly, and can breathe more easily....we're so excited!!!!! (if you can't tell by the amount of exclamation marks).

So....where to begin? (Note: this is a long blog, print out, and read on your commute.....) Friday I ended up working from home for the day. We had an early out for the long weekend, and the weather was miserable out, so no point in going in. During the day, I got a call from Al telling me about a break-in that happened that morning in our neighborhood, so I was a bit freaked out working from home. Anyway, I had a hair appt at 4 pm, so I headed out to my appt., and called Al afterwards to pick me up-but he wasn't able to b/c he "was not in DC". I had not idea where he was, so I cabbed on home, and as I go to open the door, I notice it is now unlocked, and the alarm is off (which is not how I had left it). Turns out my brother-in-law Marc was the first of many surprises for the weekend. Shortly after catching up w/ Marc, Al got home and before I knew it, the doorbell rang, and my friends Sylvie and Jarrod (from Michigan) were here, with their baby Deidrea in tow. The birthday weekend celebration had officially begun!

After calming down, we all went to dinner together at Logan Tavern to catch up and visit with each other--last time I saw Sylvie and Jarrod was 2 years ago for Al's 30th dive trip, so it was such a treat to see them again, and have them be a part of the weekend, and it was great having Marc there as well, and have him join in the festivities. Dinner was pretty chill, but it was great to just catch up and have a low key evening after such an exciting start!

The next morning, Al got up early to go into work--and the rest of us agreed we would all go out to brunch to Busboys and Poets when Al got back from work. As I walk into the back room of Busboys, and I'm greeted by about 20 of my closest friends...some new, some old, some DCers, and my friend Shannon from Memphis (along with the other out of town guests mentioned above)....all having brunch and yelling "surprise!!!". I was in shock. I had NO idea we were going to have a morning surprise party (I had knowledge the birthday celebration was this weekend, but didn't know when or where, or more importantly....what.)

So, to answer the question of "what is all this????", Al (my most fabulous husband) started a flash movie he created, which explained that it was to be a Spytastic weekend-with a Scavenger Hunt!!! After watching the film, I got tapped on the shoulder, and my parents (and brother) were all standing behind me...I jumped up and totally started balling. I guess I was just so overwhelmed, and it's been a crazy few months, so the comfort of seeing family was such a relief.

Al started to launch into his speech about what the day would entail--we were all broken into color teams...green, blue, red, gray and white. We each got t-shirts for our team, which had the coolest panda spy design, done my friend(s) Jerrold Connors (with help from lovely wife Kristen). (make sure to visit http://www.alligatorboogaloo.com/, he's genious!) . We were also given spy kits including a pencil, and marker, a roll of nickels, a decoder, a list of objects to obtain, and a list of places that 3 members of the team had to take a picture in front of. Each team also got a zip car (http://www.zipcar.com/) that they would have to drive around for the day. I got to drive a Mini-Coop for the day, so I truly felt Spytastic! We also got a CD mix of "Music to Spy By", including music from Mission Impossible, James Bond, etc.

This is how it worked: we were given a list of certain places in DC to take pictures in front of and certain items to obtain (some specific to DC, some not). Each picture that was taken and each object obtained amassed a certain amount of points. We were also given a checkpoints we had to go to. Checkpoint 1 lead to the next checkpoint (but a secret decoder had to be used in order to determine the next location point. There were a total of three checkpoints that we had to go to in order to determine final checkpoint. So, in addition to getting pictures across the city and obtaining objects, we also had to go to the various checkpoints so that we could determine our final destination point (we had to be there 5 pm SHARP, and the first team there got 1,000 points!) My team was Mags (my childhood friend since 2), Sylvie and Jarrod. Hilarity ensued. We had a great day running around the city collecting items, and reenacting scenes from movies, reinacting my wedding, going to pretermined checkpoints so that we could figure out our final destination point. There was definitely smack talk going on between the teams, and a competitive vibe throughout the day. We had a great time being silly and acting like spies. Luckily, my team was able to determine the final checkpoint (we missed one of the checkpoints), but we made it to the finish line first.

On the music to spy by, there was a key decoder hidden on track 48, which helped the other teams figure out where to meat. The secret hint was "half smoke", which lead to only one place----Ben's Chilli Bowl.

We had dinner at Ben's, and then everyone went home to change. An exhausting day, truly, but the day was not over. We all met up for cocktails at Spy Lounge later that night (to continue the spy theme). While some people were tuckered out, I was impressed by those who rallied. A few people joined who were not able to be part of the scavenger hunt. At one point in the evening, my friend Diana (also from MI) walked in the door and surprised me, which was awesome!! I thought all of my surprises were over, so it was nice to have one more.

The night ended around 2, a couple of martini's down the catch, but mostly a great evening with good friends, my wonderful family, and my terrific, thoughtful husband.

I just want to say special thanks to those who made my day wonderful, not just by being there, but contributing ideas, helping Al with coordinating music to his flash invite, designing t-shirts, calling to check in, etc. It was a great day, and was the most I've laughed in the past two months. Thank you for that!!!

And, thank you to Al. You never cease to amaze me. You are so talented and creative, and a wonderful life partner. Even through a wired jaw, you continue to be so thoughtful, kind, and caring. I am truly lucky to have you as my husband, and I can't wait to have even more adventures with you.

Check out our pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcNGTZs3ZOGHO