About a year and a half ago, Dwayne and I decided to stop purchasing cards for each other for different events... we'd lived in our "tiny house" for a few years, and had cards that we had received previously. We had stopped near Carlsbad, NM at the Escapees co-op park there, and one of the other couples mentioned that they just re-gave previously given cards for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, etc. We thought that sounded like a good idea, so we implemented it. We had already started putting the year that a card was given either on the envelope or inside... so, I gave the collection of cards that Dwayne had given to me back to him, and he did the same back to me... and then we just selected one of the cards that we had already given once and put a new year on it, and gave it again! Saving money and saving space - what a plan!
So, I had found the cards that Dwayne had previously given to me in the past, and when I got up this morning, I selected a couple of them and enjoyed them as the cards that Dwayne may have chosen to give to me this year. It wasn't like I was settling for something less, because I wouldn't have received a new card even if he were still living on earth with me! And, he always picked such sweet cards, so the words were so beautiful to read, even though I had read them before.
Other thoughts came to me during the day... I remembered the birthday celebrations that my friends and I were involved with doing when I was in college... we would go to great lengths to surprise the birthday girl or guy... some examples:
- Since my birthday was in the summer, we generally didn't celebrate my birthday. So, my friends decided one year to celebrate it on some random day, I think it was in March. I had a very "interesting" job to guard the basement loading dock door of the library. No one ever exited the building that way that I remember, but for whatever reason, the library decided that they needed someone sitting there after the normal loading dock usage hours were over to ensure that no one stole books by going out the basement door. From 6pm to midnight one evening a week, I sat at the desk at the basement door and did homework and got paid for it. (It was a cushy job and all of the library workers wanted to do it, so any single individual could only do it one night a week, and I think only seniors got to do it.) On the night that my friends decided to celebrate my birthday, I was working down there. I heard some noise from the elevator, and to my surprise, it was coming down to the basement where I was working. When the door opened, there my friends were with cake and party items. What fun!
- Another time, one of the girls in our group had made it clear that she would love to have a surprise party, but that she always saw through the surprise beforehand, so she wouldn't ever be actually surprised (I guess having the party on a day not remotely close to her birthday wasn't in the plan). So, we planned a "fake" surprise party, with very thinly veiled hiding of the surprise, "Oh, wouldn't you like to come over to the apartment for a little while this evening?" (wink, wink, sly glance, etc.). So, she came over... our plan had been, for the fake party, to get a piece of cake from the cafeteria at dinner and just put a candle in it for her... unfortunately, the cafeteria didn't have any cake for dessert that evening, so the guy who was to get the piece of cake got a piece of cherry pie instead. We dutifully put the candle in the pie and when she got to the apartment, yelled, "Surprise!" and had her blow out the candle. We didn't know at the time, but she didn't even *like* cherry pie! Soon after she had blown out the candle, we all went back to studying... no time to waste on a party, sorry! She (probably very disappointed at the rudeness of her friends) and her roommate left to walk across campus... back to their own dorm room... where the *real* surprise party was to occur! As soon as they cleared from the front of the apartment, those of us who had thrown the "fake" party flew out the door to a car that we drove to the dorm. Meanwhile, her roommate had her shoe come untied several times as they were walking across campus, further delaying their arrival at the *real* surprise party and allowing the rest of us to arrive -- and yes, I think she actually was surprised!
- I particularly thought of this experience because I worked at the cafeteria serving at lunch today, and for my lunch "sides", I selected a piece of chocolate pie. As I was walking back to the Welcome Desk, I was grinning thinking that I would have pie for my birthday "cake" this evening! And, it was *delicious*!
The year that we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, we were on Kauai, and both cards were appropriately left by the bathroom sink. We both arrived in the bathroom with expected expressions of surprise that there was a card for us, and proceeded to open the cards. As I took my card out of the envelope, I thought, "Oh no, somehow we've got it switched up, I'm opening the card that I got for Dwayne..." but, no, it was just that we had picked the exact same card to give to each other! I figured at that point, after 16 years of marriage, we no longer had original thoughts! From then on, when I picked an anniversary card, it would say "To my husband"... I figured it was unlikely we would ever duplicate the same card that way!
What fun memories, of Dwayne and of others - so thankful for all of these that God has placed in my life, whether for a short season or for a longer time - all of them were blessings that God has given to me!
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