Surprise!

My 40th birthday was more than a month ago, but this year, I asked my loved ones for something unique. I asked them to pick a random month of the year and surprise me with something. I said it doesn’t need to be big — no flash mobs needed. But I dearly love surprises, and I thought it would be fun to spread that energy throughout a whole year.

I’ve received boxes of goodies in the mail and a new coffee mug that I love. I’ve been surprise sledding and surprise roller skating. One person — and this is so generous — is making me a surprise meal once per month. Last weekend, she made me linguine from scratch. How lucky am I?

And then last night, I shared a text with a young adult I love to see if we wanted to pick up watching where we left off with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (My favorite show ever! We watching it all bit by bit, and we sync our screens over distance.) “How about 8:30?” she replied.

“Yep,” I replied simply.

8:30pm rolled around, and my doorbell rang. She drove from an hour away to watch it with me in person!

SURPRISE!

I loved it.

-Renee Roederer