8:00 Wake up time. (Great way to start a birthday, early to rise after a night out! Haha)
9:00 Matt drives me to Satellite from campus for breakfast burritos and coffee and the first surprise is revealed to me - an unexpected Skype date with my sister Anvah in Israel! I thought, oh cool, surprise birthday video time with Anvah... and that afterwards we would be headed out to whatever day activity was planned (I believed I would be taken to Santa Fe for 10 Thousands Waves or a hike at the ski basin). Little did I know, the adventurous mission would start right there!
All of the sudden Matt says he left something in the car and goes out to get it. About 10 minutes later my sister says, "Hold on a sec." So I am sitting there with all our stuff, eating my breakfast and then I hear the pink panther theme song start playing on my sister's end of the video... dah dun... dah dun... dah dun dah dun dah dun! Anvah pops into the screen wearing huge sunglasses and a cap on and now claims to be a spy with a message on how to save my boyfriend who was just kidnapped from vampires! OH NO! (All those years of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer better come in handy!) So over my immediate laughter she reads me my first clue which leads me to believe I need to go to BEEPS in Nob Hill for stop 1 of what I am just realizing may be a scavenger hunt.
As I gather all our things together and finish my breakfast, I begin to wonder how the heck am I going to get there... walk? Must be. So I head out the door and begin briskly moving up Central and all of the sudden a car blocks my path and I hear "Navi!" I look up to see a very well dressed chauffeur who after a second of double taking I figure out is Joe, Matt's brother. I think: This is official, I'd better get in! I get in the car and Joe asks, "Where to miss?" To which I respond, "I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO" because I begin to question weather Beeps was really the place I needed be at, or if it was the COOP grocery store, or what was actually going on anyways?!?!?! After some confused discussion we decide to go to the COOP and I walk in and stroll around aimlessly when I see Lindsay Mound at the pastry section who looks at me suspiciously and says, "Hey! What are you doing here?!" I say, I think I am on a scavenger hunt and I think you're involved! She then proceeds to give me another clue which is written in Braille (don't worry listeners, I know me some braille!) As I decipher the message very slowly, forgetting what it says every time I get through another line, I stutter and Lindsay comes to the rescue with a pen to write the message down in regular print as I read it. The message says, "Known for great food and silly prices, and named after plants that reach for the"..... for the what??? That's how it ends??? Well once it was in print it began to click and I knew the next stop was SUNFLOWER market!
10:00 My driver Joe takes me to Sunflower and I begin my aimless search through the store. Well spies are easier to spy when they wear hats and sunglasses, so when I saw Mike Pope and Jovonna I immediately called them out! "Spies! I'm onto you!" So they proceed to tell me that I need to find my next clue which is hidden in the store. To this I respond, "What!!!!?? You gotta have a better hint than that, this is huge store with lots of stuff!" So I get a clue that says to keep my eyes up.... Tah dah! I spot a birthday balloon and when I approach it I see it's tied to my favorite snack- a larabar! Eeeew, but it's been opened already, and the next clue is tucked inside. I pull out the sheet of wax paper with a bunch of numbers on it, something like this 1-15-6-23-11-5-8- and on and on and on. No spacing between. But there is a key so I have to figure out the message using a letter/number system. Well that was a lot harder than it sounds with all the spacing issues and my visual tracking was not exactly on par. But I did it, and the message was: "A photographer in a box whose polaroids come out next to the coin slot." Easy - a photo booth! But where?
10:30 I get in the car and the chauffeur asks where's the next stop.... but then Mike comes back to the car to say I forgot something in the store and I need to go back in. I get out and start my 2nd hopeless meander, when I run into Marie and Leon (Matt's parents!). They tell me they have another clue and I need to sit down somewhere so they can give it to me. We go out front and I sit down just as they don me with a ginormous sombrero and begin singing their traditional family birthday song to me - Las Mananitas! How precious that was, I was truly touched.
10:45 The driver and I head towards Cottonwood Mall -way on the west side of town- to find the photo booth, even though I think we are suppose to go to Coronado Mall (a million times closer). We drive half way there, about 15 minutes or so, and Joe turns around and says, "You did say Cottonwood right?" To this I say, "What?! .... no... I thought it was Coronado." Joe says, "Oh I thought you said Cottonwood.... hmmm.... maybe we need to turn around." I feel awful because I think he just drove way out of the way because of my mistake (later on turns out it was a planned detour to buy Matt some time).... So we get verification and turn back towards the other mall. I go inside and when I finally find the photo booth nobody or anything is there. I am thinking, great what now?? But sure enough my friend Andi strolls casually by and I know my next spy has arrived. She says she has the next clue but the orders are that first we must take photos in the booth. So we hunt down some change and are taking the photos when Bill, Renee (Matt's sister) and Zack make an appearance. They say, "Happy Birthday, let's take some photos" so I get back into the booth for round two. Just as we are finishing, my friend Dani and my other friend Codi show up and repeat the birthday greeting and desire to take photos. So I get back in for round three. I am relishing the photo booth fun, but glad to get my next clue. Just then Heather and Sean (more friends) show up and I get back into the booth for a round 4. Finally, Andi hands me my next clue which is a photo booth strip of Matt (where have they taken him???) who has the next clue in the pictures: "Find the mud and trees." Easy- the Bosque! But where? Good thing I had a spy to confirm my guesses.
12:00 My driver takes me down to the bosque trails at Central, where I immediately spot my mom's car. Yeah, mom time! I get out and start walking around searching, and a few moments later spot a peticab bicycle headed my way with Matt Bernauer driving and my mom on back. NO WAY! I am so excited at this point I could pee. I hop on and get a stellar ride down the trail to the Nature Center, all passer-bys commenting on how cool the scenario is, and even better - there's a warm thermos with tea! My mom gives me my next clue which is a crossword puzzle designed by Matt. By now you must be saying in your head, wow- get out - how creative is this guy? Yup. After some tough thinking, I complete the puzzle and know that I am going to Il Vicino (a pizza place) to find Matt.
1:00 At the Nature Center my mom and I catch up and watch some canadian geese. Then my chauffeur reappears out of thin air and takes me back to the Bosque trail start point where he hops out of the car, and my dad hops in to become the new chauffeur, as if there was a shift change. Sweet! My dad takes me to Il Vicino and not only do I find my tied up boyfriend in a chair, but all sorts of beautiful faces including many of the friends who participated in such a wild and spectacular adventure.
Turns out my dad had a big hand in the planning and ideas as well! The two of them tag teamed the goal of surprising me. But Matt was thoroughly applauded as well as critiqued for setting the bar really high for all the other boyfriends out there! I must be extremely lucky and loved. I can't thank enough all the faces that were a part of this terrific day. Who knew 27 was going to be such a big deal? Not me, but many many many thank yous to all!!!
P.S. Could it get any better? Check out the birthday gifts Matt made me - an amazing 3 ft x 1.5 ft print on wood (the picture does not even begin to come close to what it is really like) and a revamped armoire that he sanded, painted, and inlayed cut glass.
