"FRIEND II"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASH!

(Haha... I don't think I got it out of my system on Tuesday.)

That party was SO nerve-wracking for me. (At least, planning was.) I had been pondering the idea of a surprise party for some time, but at about 9 o'clock on Monday evening I realized, Hey! This could actually work! So, Tuesday morning I rushed around the school, trying to find Jane, Alison, and Olivia to tell them about the party. I found Jane. That was it. (Technically, I also found Nathan, but as he was glued to Ashley AS ALWAYS, I couldn't tell him until later.) I had one person. ONE. Do you have any idea how worried I was then??

Luckily, it was a red day, and so I saw Alison in Chamber Orchestra. Unfortunately, it WAS a red day, so I had no way of contacting Olivia or Nathan. However, I sent out my lil' messengers (Ali and Jane) to find Olivia and Jonah and pass on the word. I would have tracked down everyone myself, but I had an orthodontist appointment during R7/Lunch and part of my R8 chem class.

I came home at 3:15, knowing that I had to get all of the supplies, the cake, the pizza, and the people organized by six o'clock. Not to mention I had to clean the house...

I decided that people were the most important at that time, and so I called Olivia to see if the word had gotten to her yet. It had, but because of the choir banquet she wasn't able to come. Darn it! I thought. That rules out Nathan, too. However, it was going to be a somewhat small party in the first place, so only having three guests (including myself) wouldn't be that bad of a celebration.

I then called Ash to make sure that she still was free. (*ahem* The "Oh! I forgot! I have to babysit!" incident from a few weeks ago...) She was, so I told her I was going to bring her over and we'd do something special, like movies or something. I also told her that Jane might come over to work on Meeting of the Minds with me. We got to talking about other things for a while before she suddenly says, "Someone wants to call you, Sarah! Gotta go! Bye!"

I was scared then.

But it was Nathan, who called for directions to my house just in case he could skip the choir banquet. About an hour after that, Jane arrived and we headed off to pick up Ashley. I was so nervous going over to pick her up because 1) I had never done a surprise party before, 2) it was an extremely last-minute thing, and 3) the Comstocks (MBoys to you, Jane!) and Alison had not arrived yet. Jane witnessed my paranoia. Just ask her, Ash!

We picked her up, had some conversation (with half-lies and such to keep her unsuspecting) and brought her back to the house. I walked in carrying the pizza (which I had told her was just for us three) and saw Nathan, Jonah and Alison hiding in the formal dining room.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RELIEVED I WAS?!?!

Then came Jane's wonderful "Alison?" and everyone popped out. The party began, blah, blah, blah... I'll post pictures later. (I'm mailing some to you, YouNa, with your birthday present!)

There were so many things that could have gone wrong that didn't... Other than the fact that it rained and we couldn't play with bubbles. :(

That's a basic summary of the "behind-the-scenes" planning that I had to do to get the party going. To me, it was a success. I don't care if anyone else had fun, but as long as Ash had a good time, I'm happy. That was the whole point. But you guys do know that I'm expecting one for my 16th, don't ya? :P

"Ziggy, stop living vicariously through the cat!"
"Meow?"