"The Best Story I Have." OR "I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!"

So, Monday's my birthday. I've never been a huge fan of my birthday, because let's face it, summer birthdays are kinda the pits. (Keep that in mind, all of you who are having babies and planning families!) In elementary and middle school, when all the kids got ice cream or got to have lunch with the principal or parties in class on their birthdays, I always had to go on that "Summer birthdays" day. Lame. I only remember having one real birthday party, the summer after Kindergarten, because when you have a summer birthday, all your friends are always out of town or on vacation on your birthday. Sure, my parents always did everything they could to make it special, but usually I just had a friend or two, whoever was in town, go to a movie and spend the night. It was always fun, but not the big blowouts my friends got. Okay, maybe I was a little jealous. Then once I was in high school and college, I was almost always at camp on my birthday...which generally meant I was working ALL day on my birthday. On my 20th birthday I had an allergic reaction to peanut butter and spent the whole day with my friends trying to decide if I needed to be rushed to the hospital or not. My 16th, 18th, and 21st birthdays (all the biggies, right?) were all spent working at camp, and camp birthdays are okay, but mostly they're just kind of embarrassing.

My first fun birthday in recent years was the summer I was in grad school--a bunch of my college friends were there, and they were awesome! They planned dinner and a party, one of my best friends took me out to lunch--it was a blast. I had a low-key birthday at my folks' house with April and Bryce 3 years ago--it was soooooo hot that the power went out most of the day!! Bryce was about 15 months old and he sang me "Happy Birthday" (minus the word "birthday"--hilarious!) all day. It was great.

Erik, though, is ALL about birthdays and all about making them special. The first year we were dating (we'd been dating about 3 weeks at that point), I drove to Kennewick to spend my birthday with him because we had to go to Seattle for a wedding the next day. I got there the night before, and on the morning of my birthday, his folks' were leaving on a trip for their Anniversary. So I woke up and went into his room to wake him up so we could say goodbye to them, and I discovered that they'd put up signs all over the house saying, "Happy Birthday!" and "Celebrate!" etc. So cute. They gave me a birthday present and some cupcakes and headed out on their trip.

Erik asked me, "What time of day were you born?" When I replied, "3:31 PM," he said., "Sweet. That's what time we need to leave." He took me to a SUPER nice restaurant, where he had clearly planned ahead, because we had reservations and there was a card and a gift waiting for me at the table. How cute is that? He got me a journal with Shakespeare on the cover (which was a throwback to a previous conversation where I declared my love for Shakespeare, to which he responded, "I didn't know I had competition."). So sweet. We had a super nice, 4-course meal, and then walked around downtown for a while through some art galleries and stuff.

He had to work that night at the ballpark (he repeatedly offered--insisted, in fact--to take the night off, but I told him no, because he only got to work a few games that summer anyway), so we headed down to the park. One of his co-workers, a friend from REACH, came running out and gave me a cute card and a present from her and her sister (who had been in one of my small groups at a REACH retreat). Cute. Then he gave me my ticket (which was FREEEEE! And right behind home plate in the 2nd row!). After a few minutes, a couple good friends walked in and wished me happy birthday (how did they know?) and said they were going to sit with me!! Erik had totally arranged that so I didn't have to sit by myself. :)

So we were having a good ol' time, hanging out at the baseball game, then it was the top of the 8th inning. Erik carries around a microphone, and I heard his voice come over the loudspeaker. I could usually pick him out right away, but this time I couldn't find him. I kept looking around, then I realized he was behind us. I looked back and saw him, in a white tux jacket and bowtie over his work clothes, and saw that he had flowers in his hand. He was standing right behind this cute, older couple, and I thought, "Awww. Must be their anniversary." (I'm so oblivious!) Then all the sudden, I heard him say, "Folks, we have a very special birthday in the crowd tonight. (At this point he started walking down the stairs toward me.) She's been my best friend for more than two years and now I'm blessed to call her my girlfriend. Happy birthday, Jen. I love you." By this time he was standing right next to me with a huge bouquet of beautiful roses in his hand.

And this is when my life turned into a movie.

He gave me the roses and gave me a hug, and all the sudden, the crowd (over 3,000 people that night) started chanting, "Kiss! Kiss her! Kiss!" So, in front of 3,000+ people, Erik kissed me. Then he turned me, the Promotions Director, Kelli, took a couple photos, and he kissed me again and ran off. Holy cow.

My friends, Jonny and Karen, started freaking out in the chairs next to me. "We knew!! We totally knew!!" Apparently their whole job was to make sure I was still in my seat at the top of the 8th inning and I didn't go to the bathroom or anything. Jonny told me he and Erik had gotten coffee together earlier in the week and made the plan, and Erik was really nervous about whether or not it would be okay with me. Needless to say, it totally was. :) About ten minutes later, Erik returned, sans tux jacket, and gave me a big hug. "Was that okay?" he asked. I just grinned and said, "Of course it was okay. It was more than okay. It was perfect! Thank you so much!"

Now you might think this is the end, but it's not.

As soon as the game ended, we busted out of there (highly unusual--usually Erik has to stick around and say goodbye to everyone) and returned to his house. His parents were gone, and I was excited to just spend a nice, chill evening together. But he's tricky.

He said, "At my house, we have a tradition. In the living room, there's a birthday tree, and under the birthday tree, there's usually a birthday present. You should go see if there's one for you!" WHAT?!? I had been with Erik literally every single second up until we got in the car and left, and I KNEW there hadn't been a package lying in the middle of the floor when we left, and his whole family was out of town, so I was very confused. Nonetheless, I walked in and found a package on the floor. We sat down and he told me to open it. It was a BEAUTIFUL coffee table book of London. I lived in London for 5 months in college, and I still get homesick for the city. I LOVE IT THERE!! And Erik knew it, because everytime we saw anything London-ish, he had to stand there and wait for me while I told him a bunch of stories or showed him a bunch of things he probably didn't care about. So he KNEW I would LOVE this book. I thanked him and flipped through it quickly. He said, a little confused, "Do you recognize anything?" I said, "Of course I do!" And (God bless him!) he said, "Would you tell me about it?" So he sat there with me, very patiently, for 45 minutes while I went through page by page and told him stories about London.

When that was finished, he stretched and said, "I think I'm going to go put my pjs on and chill out for awhile. " I was still in my skirt from dinner, so I decided to go upstairs and change, too. I had just finished getting ready before we had to leave, so I had thrown everything onto my bed as we ran out the door. When I got up to my room, all my stuff had been cleaned off, and there were shiny red pieces of tinsel (like those Christmas tree icicles?) all over the bed, and in the middle of the bed was a black box that said, "The Magic Box" in bright colored letters. WHAT??

Background: All those years when I used to go to camp or work at camp, they had a tradition called the Magic Box. You could write happy, uplifting notes to staff and campers and put them in the box, and at some point during the day, they'd get those notes. They were usually things like, "You're my favorite counselor." Stuff like that.

Back to the story: Admittedly, I didn't quite get it at first. But I opened it up, and found notes and letters and e-mails from all these girls I used to work with at camp, some who I hadn't talked with in literally years. There were also a whole bunch of photos of me at camp when I was a little girl. There was a note from Andrea and photos of her new baby...so many amazing things. I was speechless.

Apparently he had collaborated with my sister (thanks, Meem!), and they had broken into my e-mail and e-mailed all these amazing women I used to work with and asked them to write me a note. Sooooo cute. And he had called my mom and asked me to send photos of me at camp. It was so special.

I cleaned everything up, changed into my pajamas, and went downstairs. I found him in the kitchen, and I gave him a big hug and thanked him. It was a perfect day.

Last year I didn't get to see him until the day after my birthday (I was in Park City and we were taking my sister's Bridal Photos on my birthday), but we celebrated for about 3 days. It was awesome. He took me on a couple dates, we saw a movie, went out to dinner, he gave me some presents, and he gave me tickets to go see "Spamalot" when we both moved to Portland in August. It was fabulous!!

So this summer, he's in Kennewick and I'm in Portland. I just saw him last weekend, and I'll see him next week at a music festival, so I couldn't really justify driving to Kennewick or asking him to drive to Portland (even though he would if I wanted him to) just for my birthday. So he's been asking me what I'm doing, and aside from taking the day off work and maybe having a BBQ, I was planning on just taking it easy. A few days ago he called me and said, "What are your plans this weekend?" I told him I didn't really have any, so he said, "Do you want to spend the day with me on Sunday?" I asked, "In what town?" And he said, "Hood River!" Hood River is this awesome little town at the base of Mt. Hood, on the Columbia River, partway between Portland and Kennewick. Automatically I was very excited, and said, "Yes I do!" Then, cryptically, he said, "I wanted to spend your actual birthday with you, but some of the things I want to do with you won't work out on Monday, so is it okay if we do it Sunday?" Ummm, YES! He said, "I'll give you more details as they come in." What? So he's planning the whole day, it's a surprise, and all I know is I'm supposed to meet him there tomorrow morning to go to church together. FUN!!!! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!!!!!!