Barry’s birthday surprise

Barry’s 40th birthday was on Monday (happy birthday again, sweetheart!), and I thought I’d give him an experience for his birthday gift…

I’m usually pretty good with keeping secrets, but this one was especially hard as I almost blew the secret adventure out of the water when I was especially tired after flying home from San Diego a few weeks ago. I’d asked Barry if he could take Monday off of work (which as a sidenote, turned out to not be an issue, as Barry was laid off from HSBC last Thursday — a day after his licensing *finally came through for BC/Alberta [unhappy face]) — When asked, he mentioned that he’d probably need to call into a conference call that Monday morning, but otherwise, he couldn’t see a problem.

To which, I blurted out: “Oh. Well, it might be expensive to have a long call from the states.”

Doh.

He laughs. “We’re going to the states, are we?”

Argh — “Damn.” I replied. He then said something that saved the surprise, for the most part: “Are we taking the train down to Seattle? I saw there were some good deals for that?”

Phew…. “Yes! How did you know we were taking the train?” I quickly mustered up as a reply — And, I might add… It wasn’t a lie. We WERE taking a train. Just not to Seattle. It counts to be taking the skytrain to the airport doesn’t it? Hehehe…

So, for a few weeks, Barry thought he was going to Seattle, and all my friends were in on it. It was hilarious every time someone said “have a great trip to Seattle!” just before we left, as I giggled to myself.

But, the day we were leaving, I screwed up. We were packing for the four day weekend, and I was talking out loud to myself in the bathroom about what we needed to bring, when it occurred to me that if we wanted to bring only carry-ons, we’d need to eliminate my hairspray and such. Barry asked what I was doing, and I said, “well, I can’t take that on the plane, so I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.”

Doh! “DAMN!” I exclaim in dismay. I’ve ruined it.

“The plane??” He asks. “We’re flying to Seattle?”

I explained that we weren’t flying to Seattle… And decided to let him in on the surprise. We were flying to Vegas, and staying at the Trump Hotel until Monday night. He was ecstatic! I was pleased that at least I’d almost made it to the airport before spilling the surprise.

It was a fabulous trip! Barry and I both won poker tournaments (a total shock to me, since I am still very much learning – but, I am so glad that my expectation that Barry won at least one tournament was accurate). And, although the service at the Trump was much lower than I was used to at that hotel, the room was stunning.

So, all-in-all, a really great trip at a much-needed time.