Going Away Party...

Ok, well I guess it is about time for me to get back on the blogging bandwagon since I have some fun things to share.

FIRST ON THE LIST - a recap of our surprise going away party....well actually John Paul knew about it, so it mainly was a surprise on me. Regardless, it was a truly unforgettable send off! I have to give props to my best friend, Liz Nitz (aka Chicken Little) for masterminding the whole operation. I'm really not sure if I should be duly impressed that all of my girlfriends can keep such a big secret or if I should be concerned with how clueless I truly am....we'll circle back to that later.

Anyhow, to give a little background - John Paul had told me not to plan anything the weekend of December 12 - thats it, no other details. Having an agenda at all times is part of my genetic make up, so the vagueness of the whole situation sent me into a tailspin. John Paul is fully aware of this ingrained personality trait; so I am convinced that he capitalized on this opportunity to drive me bonkers. Ok, so from here I am going to try to give everyone the abridged version (HA!) -

The big weekend finally came and I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what the heck is going on. As of Saturday morning, John Paul's best friend Devin is in town, my sister and my brother in law surprsied me by stopping by Friday night "on their way to Atlanta" and now I have been instructed to pack an overnight bag packed by lunchtime. At this point, I'm thinking that John Paul has planned a relaxing weekend up in the mountains, but instead we head to Southpark Mall. I rarely turn down an excuse to go to shop, but I was so preoccupied with how the mall fit into the surprise that I coudn't even turn to retail therapy to dissipate my impatience. After about 2 hours of perusing, we left and headed towards the airport. Now I had deleted the mountains from my mental checklist and came up with the new idea that one of my girlfriends had flown in from out of town to surprised me. Wrong again. Out of the baggage claim comes Devin's girlfriend, Joy. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to see her, but already had two strikes on what I thought the big surprise was. From there, the four of us drove into uptown Charlotte to check into the Hampton Inn. At this point, I'm really confused - why where we staying in a hotel in the city we live in? Did John Paul and Devin want to burn through a few Hilton Honors points and get a free breakfast? Am I on Punk'd? Ok, so at this point, John Paul tells me that we are all going to dinner in a hour. Now I think I have it figured out - we are going out to a super nice dinner in the city. Strike three. Around 6:30pm we leave the hotel and pull up to Cantina. Not that Cantina isn't a GREAT resteraunt, but it certainly isn't somewhere I put on my fake Yurman jewelry for either. So we meet up with Joe, Gina, & some of their friends and I concede to not think about the 'surprise' anymore and see how many Pacificos I can drink before my tacos come. (By the way, the answer is two - pretty weak!) After dinner, the group is discussing what the plans are for the evening and someone suggests Tyber Creek. I personally don't frequent this watering hole very often and even curled my nose up a little when it was mentioned. The last time I was there it was really dark, but I think that was primarily due to smog cloud caused by 99% of the patrons chain smoking Marlboro Reds. (Now I'm really being a brat.) So, I go with the flow and we head to Tyber Creek. We walk in downstairs and see a couple of guys bellied up to the bar, but not a whole lot of other action going on. It's a unanymous decision to check out upstairs and I lead the way. As I'm marching up to the second floor, I catch a glimpse of my mom and dad sitting at the top. (For those of you that don't know - my mom and dad have been divorced since I was very young and having them in the same place usually means that something very good or very bad is about to happen.) I'm certain at this point that I am either hallucinating or the waitress at Cantina slipped something into my beers. As I'm trying to regain clarity, I look in another direction and realize that I know a lot of people here - wierd! Well then everyone yells SURPRISE! I turn around to John Paul, Devin, Joy, Joe, and Gina and realize that everyone knows whats going on except for me. Of course then I am emotional (in a good way - happy tears) as I see my little brother (who flew in from Florida), my filthy liar of a sister & brother in law who never left Charlotte (kidding about the liar part), my dear friend Megan (who flew into LA), and so many of the other people who I consider my "Charlotte Family". Oh, did I mention my mom and dad were there, too? Wow! It was such an awesome night and I am SO thankful that we got to see some of our closest friends and family before we leave. Everything has been incredibly hectic and we both were worried that in the midst of it all, we wouldn't get to see our loved ones. Everyone took lots of pictures, so I'll be posting them to my shutterfly account, but I'll still attach some of my favorites. I've said it before, but I will say it again - John Paul and I both are SO blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives. Thank you to everyone who has been there for us through this process. We will miss each and every one of you!