Shock

My family got me. Pretty much everyone I care about has been involved in an intricate web of lies for the past three months in an elaborate ruse to get me to come home for a surprise wedding shower.

I was under the impression I was helping my aunt plan a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom. In real life, my mom was planning her own party AND mine while I went off on red herring missions.

Nobody ever threw me a surprise party before. I have always wanted one. It was the best thing in the entire world. I literally stood in the kitchen of my aunt's house with my mouth hanging open, speechless for probably the first time in my life.

Corey knew all about it the whole time and didn't let on a thing, not even when I was rushing him to get going to "make up munchie trays for my mom's party." This doesn't surprise me. He is a vault. But my mom? Who has never, ever not revealed the contents of a birthday present before I opened it. My mom kept a secret for months.

The only sad part of the whole day was that my sisters were stranded on another coast due to weather and logistics and Corey's mom wasn't feeling well enough to get there. But all of them knew about it the whole time.

And here I was so proud of myself because I had managed to keep her birthday party a secret from my mom, something I have never done before either. The kicker is that I so desperately wanted her to have a surprise party because she so deserves one. Someday, I'm going to get her back.