Surprise (Part 2)

Well, I think he really liked the surprise.  He was happy about it and thankful for it.  His wariness turned to excitement once he found where we were going, what we were doing, and who we would see.

I guess you’re wondering what the big surprise was.  It was something meaningful only to him.   We went to Nashville.  A place we enjoy visiting, but would not want to live.  Talk about traffic.  Anyway, the plan was to see an icon of bluegrass music at the Grand Ole Opry.  He loves bluegrass music.  Well, the icon, Ralph Stanley, for some reason didn’t make it to the Opry.  As fate would have it, there was another bluegrass group.  Their name escapes me at the moment, but it really doesn’t matter.  They played one song, “Rocky Top.”  My husband is a Georgia Bulldogs fan.  You can imagine that “Rocky Top” isn’t really one of his favorite songs.  So not only is one of his favorite artists a no show, but he also has to listen to one of his least favorite songs.  Happy Anniversary, Honey.  Oh well.  We had a good time there, despite the fact that this part of the surprise didn’t pan out quite like I thought it would. 

The real surprise though was a visit with some of his college friends.  When I started planning this I first thought that might be an odd way to spend an anniversary.  I mean, shouldn’t we have a romantic evening alone???  Since we basically spend all of our nights alone (although we have no children, don’t assume that every evening is a romantic date), I decided that we could share this anniversary with friends.  After all, he shared a few years of his life with these guys during college and we shared our wedding day with them since they were part of our wedding ceremony.  It seemed appropriate that we would include them in our celebration. 

I had hoped that we could meet the guys and their wives and children at a local restaurant.  They had a much better idea.  We were invited to have dinner at one friend’s home.  After driving in circles for a few minutes we finally arrived at their house and were greeted with gifts, flowers and a terrific steak dinner.  While the food and gifts were great, the best part of the evening was the fellowship.  The guys talked of their college days and laughed about things almost forgotten.  A word or a name would bring back a memory that would launch another story.  I love hearing these stories because I didn’t go to college with my husband.  I love hearing him speak about that time in his life because it gives me a new perspective.  It lets me experience those days with him.  I love it because it’s a time in his life that was special to him.  That makes it special to me.  These people are special to him.  That makes them special to me.

I worked pretty hard on the details of this plan.  I made sure I had all my ducks in a row.  I executed my plan as well as possible.  Unfortunately it didn’t go exactly as I had anticipated.  Isn’t life like that too?  We plan, we schedule, and we prepare.  Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.  But, in all things, if we are following God’s plan, it will always work out for the best. 

My anniversary surprise certainly worked out for the best.  We got to spend some quality time together without the distractions of our “normal” life and we go to spend some quality time with friends that we don’t often get to see.  

It turned out to be a perfect weekend!