Surprises are necessary
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
I've never had a surprise birthday party in my life. Friends have tried, but unfortunately, I am part private-eye just naturally watching for clues — about the day, about events, about life. I'm always wondering, wandering out ahead of things musing, "What comes next?"
Even though it's difficult to pull off, I love surprises — the wonderful, good kind, naturally. So it was on Aug. 16, my sister said, "Today is a surprise. We're going on an adventure." I was so tickled.
Now adventures are right down my alley! After all, it was an adventure that brought us here to Ramona in the first place. "Let's get a house in Ramona!" and we were off on that adventure which brought a myriad of other adventures in its wake. "Let's write a book!" and "Emmy Takes a Census" came into being. "Let's write the one we came to do," we say and we're waiting for the first ever "Another Day in the Country" to come off the press. "Let's do a bed and breakfast," and Cousin's Corner came to life. "Let's go to Hawaii for Christmas," and we missed the worst ice storm in Kansas this past winter.
Adventures are a solid, necessary part of my life. And usually I am at least 50 percent of the instigation, if not more! There is a tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach when I think of adventuring and I can feel it spread through my limbs. I hold my breath as I imagine the extent of the excitement this adventure will engender.
Didn't I tell you about the surprise we planned one year for Tooltime Tim on his birthday? It's worth repeating! We hijacked him on his way home from work on the day of his birthday. We were dressed up like western bandits, riding stick horses, brandishing toy guns as he slowed down to round the corner on the Lake Road. We made him get out of the truck, put his hands in the air and marched him through the weeds to a shady sheltered cove in the pasture where a table was set up with a red checkered cloth, a china plate and goblet and after he cleaned up — which is another story — he sat down to his favorite dinner of roast beef and potatoes. Now that was a surprise that was almost as much fun in the planning as it was in its execution.
"I can't top that one," my sister was heard muttering, "but we're going to have fun in Salina."
I know my sister, so I sort of know the kind of things she likes to do which gives you a clue as to what kind of things she'd plan for a surprise but as we drove I kept going over the possibilities in my mind. It was delicious. Without judgment, I reviewed what could be happening, watching for clues. When we turned off K-4 to go into Salina the "back way" I registered that clue and began listing all the possibilities on the north side of town — that is north isn't it? We drove past all the places I'm so grateful NOT to be visiting like doctor's offices, the hospital, the cancer facility, a mortuary and even the spot that sells tombstones. I quietly gave thanks that on this birthday I was very much alive and healthy! Just that overwhelming sense of gratitude was a gift in itself.
We drove past antique malls, restaurants, and finally headed left on Crawford. Now I knew my first idea was the destination. She was taking me for a pedicure — me who walks barefoot all summer, me who stomps around in the garden dirt endlessly, me who does so few frilly pampering things — was being treated to a new experience. Surprise!
After I'd been soaked, brushed, clipped, buffed, prodded, poked, rubbed, defoliated (which previously was something I thought only grasshoppers did in my garden), moisturized, and massaged, the technician asked, "What color do you want on your toes?"
I vacillated. Would it be pale pink, raspberry, orange sherbet, or fire engine red? Even in the midst of such luxury I had to be practical and said, "Deep purple, please. So the dirt won't show!"
It's another day in the country. I must remember to get up every morning with that same sense of adventure that occurred on my birthday, relishing that element of surprise as I trust the gift of life with the same surety that I trust my dearest sister, my best friend!
