We had several friends turn 30 this year, and several of them had surprise parties. So I thought, why not be unoriginal... and throw a surprise 30th birthday party for Dave?! I started thinking about it in October... started talking about it in November... Dave's dad and brother secured their tickets... I sent out save the date emails.
I didn't know where it was going to be yet, but I knew it couldn't be at our home... being that I definitely could not keep that hidden. And, I thought no kids was probably the way to go as well; as least no Treiber kids- we love em' but if they were there, everyone but us would be 'partyin'. So the research began: do I know anyone who would let us use their house? What about having it at a bar/ restaurant? Renting out space at a hotel? Well, I didn't want the liability of doing it at a friend's house; hotel/ bar/ restaurant would be extremely pricey... and we would have to eat/ drink their food and we would be constrained to their time table. So I started thinking, and since Dave's family was flying in as a surprise too- why not rent a house where they could stay and could double as the party spot? Done.
It was less than a mile away from our home and we had it for Friday and Saturday night. This way, I was able to drop off all the supplies on Friday, cook/ setup etc. on Saturday afternoon. I "fake" worked both days so Dave wouldn't start getting suspicious.
That night I was trying to convince Dave to relax and said I would drive the family back to their "hotel". We didn't want Dave to know about the rental house just yet, because that would ruin the surprise for the next day. Unfortunately it was snowing, and there was no convincing Dave... so he drove them back to the hotel we said they were staying at (The Radisson downtown Baltimore). By then it was after 1AM, and his Dad and Bro had to find a cab to bring them back to their true lodging place- I guess it took almost an hour due to the weather etc (sorry guys!).
The big party day- Saturday. So I went off to "work" again at a made-up Financial Literacy Festival. I came up with a speaker that I thought my mom would like to hear... so I could have her come for part of the afternoon to help out. I had a few friends come early to help with food and decorations.
I got home "from work" around 7PM. I was picking up all the guys to go to a design show first then off to another party (which was actually going on, and Dave even bought special beer to bring to). We hop in the car, miraculously found parking in the busy neighborhood and approached the door. It was locked. LOL. So I snuck around to the window and started making faces to try to get the awaiting 'surprisers' to open up without Dave seeing anyone. It was a close call, but it worked. We walked in to a lot of noise and a big "Surprise!". We had 25+ who showed up despite the icy weather- we had a great time! Surprise #2= success- Welcome to your 30s Dave!
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