Conspiracy, Sneaking Around and the Photos that Prove it (Not what you think…)

 

Saturday night I had one of the biggest shocks of my life – I discovered my husband has been sneaking around behind my back – making plans, going places and doing things – while I was left completely in the dark!

 

In fact, one of my best friends was in on it…and so were several other people we socialize with…

Okay…before you start thinking the worst – I have to confess – my husband put together a surprise birthday party for me – got most of our friends involved – and I had absolutely no clue!

It was actually a pretty funny story…

First of all, we had a small family celebration on Tuesday (my real birthday). And we had a really lovely time.  Although Elsa wasn’t with us, Beau-dad, Annie and Bruno and Jon’s friend Guillame came.  (Oh, and I got some great presents too!) 

It was our weekend with Elsa, who had girl scouts, a friend’s birthday party, dance lessons and a ton of

 homework to do.  And Alain had a rugby game – which meant that we weren’t going to get to go for a long drive exploring the French countryside on the first beautiful day we’ve had in about three weeks! 

 

However, a girlfriend of mine called – her husband is a Toulon rugby fanatic too – and asked me if I’d like to spend a little girlfriend time going shopping while the guys were yelling and stomping their feet and helping cheer the team to victory – so of course I said yes!

Alain was picking Alex up for the game, so he dropped me off at Josette’s (Alex’s wife), and she and I had a cup of tea and chatted for a bit, before taking off to look for bargains.  (Josette knows all the really GOOD stores!)

We wound up back at Josette’s about 3 hours later – and the guys finally called to say Toulon had lost to Toulouse by one lousy point! (Great game guys – you almost pulled it off against arguably one of the best teams out there – and to lose by one point on a penalty sucks!)

Anyway, the bunch of them – there are usually five or six of them that go to the game together – decided to go and console themselves with a beer (or two), and they said they’d call us in a bit.  So Josette and I talked for a while longer, and then she invited me into her charming blue and white kitchen – she’s so amazingly talented – she’s done most of the work on the kitchen herself, where she made pizza – she invited us to have dinner with them, and I said it sounded like a great idea. (I hadn’t remembered to take anything out of the freezer, and I wasn’t in the mood to go grocery shopping, which I would have had to do.

Well, she made three pizzas – and the guys still hadn’t called, so Josette called them and told Alain about the dinner plans – only he said no, and invited them to have dinner with us.  (Which really ticked me off, for all the reasons I’ve just mentioned!)  Plus, the house was kind of a mess, I didn’t have anything for aperitifs and there was no white wine chilling in the fridge – and no time do it before dinner.

So…lets just say that Alain wasn’t at the top of my “favorite husband” list.

Well, it got later and later – and still no call from the guys.  Josette and I talked a while longer, but we were both getting hungry and a little tired…so I finally called Alain – and I asked him how many more beers hey were going to need to drink to down their sorrows…he told me they had just ordered “one more beer” and that he would call us when they were ready to go – and he asked me to hand the phone to Josette so he could coordinate things so we got home at the same time for dinner.  Oh – and he belatedly asked me if I had something I could “throw together.”  (Can you believe it?)  I figured he didn’t want to have dinner at their place because their TV is broken and he wanted to watch a movie…

 

We left fifteen minutes later, and there was not a parking place to be had on our entire street!  We circled the block, complaining about our bad luck, and finally parked in the parking lot near Le Relais.

 

As we were walking back, the guys called, complaining that they were hungry – and wanting to know where we were at! (I told Josette that that was so typical – they sit in the bar, drinking and moaning over their loss – they should just “get over it.”)

Anyway we got home a few minutes later, and the entryway was dark – I could see a glowing light in the living room, so I figured they were watching a film – and I called out “Hey hungry guys – have you even got the table set yet?” and opened the door…and 25 people jumped out at me yelling “Felicitations!” (French for “Surprise!”) — I swear – I just about had a heart attack right then and there…

Turns out Alain had been planning this for weeks…and he did everything in his usual linear, organized fashion!

For example…he found a recipe for chilli online (Chilli is one of those dishes we sometimes make when we’re having a big party and want something ‘exotic’).  He copied it down carefully and converted the measurements into metrics and then went shopping – I found both lists in the kitchen later on.

He did the shopping on Wednesday (when he went shopping for his dad – and hid everything in the trunk and the perishables in the fridge at his work).  He said he was on pins and needles every time we got in the car, because he was afraid I’d need to get in the trunk – which is where all the non-perishables and party supplies were cached…

Saturday night he showed me the guest list – he had marked who he sent invitations to, when, when they replied, whether they were coming or not, and what they were bringing!  I shouldn’t be surprised, cause he runs the cultural center and organizes events all the time – but this is the first time he’s done one at home – and it’s the first time he’s done something like this for me…

So, once again I’m realizing how lucky I am to be married to my soulmate, and that he’s someone who is so loving and caring.

 

 

I’m also thrilled I got to talk to Luc, and Fidele called also, so it was a wonderful night spent with family and friends…all in all, not bad for my 50th birthday!

Tags:Surprise Birthday Party,Toulon Ruby Club

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