i be sneaky like ninja...

"SURPRISE!!!"
"HaPpY BiRtHdaY AiCa!!!" =)

(March 12, 2005)
The past week was stress. I swear, i thought i was losing hair over it. I'm one of those people that can't keep something exciting to myself (but i keep secrets pretty good)... it's just really annoying when i can't share it with anybody. Do you get what i mean?

So it's my sister's birthday today... today, she turned 18. The Big 1-8. Every other year before this one, all she ever did for her birthday was have dinner with her friends. By all means, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's her 18th birthday, and i wanted to make it special. On my 18th birthday, i had a party every day for about a week (which isn't unusual when you go out a lot), and for me... 17-19 was the peak of my "partying" phase.

So sneaky little me devised a plan to throw my sister a SuRpRisE BirtHdaY PaRty. I had planned to have it on a Saturday (so it's completely unexpected) and since most of her friends are still in high school, it would be more advisable to have it on a weekend when it's most likely they'll be allowed to go out. (Times have changed... highschool kids don't go as nuts as we used to be back in the day). I hooked up with her best friend on a Monday and planned everything out. So far, so good. I sent out an e-mail to all her friends. And since i was crazy PMSing that day, my e-mail sounded so intimidating... but i didn't care... i just wanted it to work.
You wanna see the invite? it looked something like this: (if you don't care, just skip it)

• Ey y'all! This is Thea, Jamaica (or Aica, for most of you)'s sister. I'm planning a SURPRISE Birthday Party for her on March 12, 2005 @ Prince of Jaipur (at the FORT, right next to Embassy) that's this Saturday at around 10pm.
  
  I'm gonna need your help, support, and most of all, your cooperation. Without you guys, this isn't gonna work. Please take some time to read the following and try to fully understand it. Thanks.
  
  I'm planning on having it on a Saturday so it's completely unexpected. I know this is gonna mean a whole lot to her if we make this happen and if it really works. She's turning 18, and i know she's been looking forward to her 18th birthday for a really looooooong time. This is really important to her and i can't even stress it enough.
  
  So here's the deal. I need ALL OF YOU to be there. Bring your friends, your friends' friends, i don't care, but i need all of you there. It's gonna be HipHop, R&B, Soul, and Funk the whole night. It's gonna be a really good party. Norah Jones is having her after party there, and there's gonna be a whole lot of party people in the scene--- honestly, it might be a little bit nuts. I don't need you guys to be there the whole night, but atleast drop by and be there even if it's just for the "SURPRISE"... that's the most important bit of it all.
  
  I'm gonna take her out for dinner in the evening and pretend i gotta run to a meeting at Jaipur. I'm gonna leave her behind with a friend (you know who you are), and then they'll follow to Jaipur afterwards. I'm gonna be there to organize the whole "surprise" bit... so i'm gonna be waiting for all of you. I need you guys there at 10:00pm ON THE DOT. We need to do it as early as possible because we have to get it done before the NOraH JoNes after party starts... because by the time the party starts, it'll be waaaay too nuts to pull off the surprise. Aryt?
  
  Okay... this is where your participation (aside from cooperation) kicks in. I need y'all to do the following:
  BRING A GIFT: I don't need it to be massive, huge, or expensive... just a little something you can give her. It's her 18th birthday... so think of it as a debut kinda thing. Just a few rules: NO BULLSHIT GIFTS like pillows, stuffed animals, or useless things that you know she'll never use. oh, and don't get her jewelry... she can make her own. get her something useful. For those of you willing to spend for it a little bit--- she'd love to receive and IpoD (haha), some CDs (the list, yet to come), Clothing (like a rocker shirt or something), or something "rockerish". If you're not willing to spend so much on it, atleast make it sentimental or something. It's only gonna happen once, so please just think about it and make it special. It's her dream to have a party with presents waiting for her to be opened... (aww... DON'T TELL HER I TOLD YOU THIS)
  BE ON TIME: you know how this goes... if nobody's there to yell at her, "surprise", it's gonna be one crappy-ass "surprise party". So please... be there by 10pm.
  WRITE HER A LITTLE SOMETHING: There's gonna be a notebook or a scrapbook being passed around. Put a picture on it, make a collage, and write her something as if it were "roasting" her. I don't want none of that bullshit "Happy birthday, god bless, take care, have a good year, thanks for being a friend" type of ish, okay? I need you to say a LITTLE something about her, and make it meaningful. Put in an inside joke or something.... put SOMETHING in there, okay? i want it to be like a giant card. IT's a SCRAPBOOK... not a CRAPbook.
  this one isn't 100% sure yet but bring a bottle of alcohol. I'm not sure about this because they MIGHT charge for corkage and i don't know how much that's gonna be. I'll let you know at the last minute... it's not that hard anyway, you can get it on the way there, right? Preferably Malibu, Baileys, Tequila Rose (all the gurly ish... haha!) and if you wanna get drunk... there are lotsa cheap drinks--- at the BAR.
  We're doing this party international style. It's not the celebrant who shows everybody a good time... IT's EVERYONE who shows the celebrant a good time. You get it? I don't understand the Filipino mentality, "Birthday mo?! Libre ka!" i mean, DUDE! It's MY frikin' bday... buy ME a frikin' drink. I know you're all feeling me on this one. (okay, now i'm just blabbing)
  Okay, i think i've said my piece and done all that i can really do. The rest is all up to you now. I'm counting on all of you to make this special for my sister. I know how much friendships mean to her and this would mean the world to her.
  This is only gonna happen once. I just need this to happen perfectly, just once. So please try your best to make this happen.
  Thanks guys. Hopefully, i'll see you all there. =)
  PS: For those of you who need a little bit more persuasion to make it over there... there's gonna be a LOT of Hot Guys and a LOT of good looking ladies. haha! no Bullshit. There's gonna be drinks and good music too!!! JUST GO dammit!!! Thanks! =)
  much LuV, --*ThEa*--

haha! whatever... i thought it was funny.

So my plan for her on Saturday was, we were gonna have a sorta "Aix and Thea's Day of Fun". haha! We started at around 3:30pm and headed to rockwell. I wanted to take her shopping. Dude, what is up with the taxi music?! Foreal? they played some dumb song about a basketball... and i know that's not what they were talking about (k, i'm swaying off topic).

yea, it's me & aix in a cab listening to their dumb music... haha!

After we finished looking around rockwell, we headed to Glorietta (where yet again, they were playing dumbass taxi music... it drives me up the walls). We had more shopping to do... i booked an appointment for us at the nail salon, but that wasn't til 7pm, so i had to stall a bit. It was cool... we had lots of time to go around and look for stuff.

We didn't find anything great... but we did go to Landmark and headed for the little boys section where i found a really cool mesh top... for myself, not for Dylan. haha! (no, i didn't take a picture)

Anyway, we headed to the nail salon and got our nails done. So pretty!!! =) everything was going great, falling right into place, all in schedule and what not. We headed to dinner after (Mars picked us up).

just got her nails done. Work of Art on a tiny canvas...

Aix wanted Italian, so we planned to have dinner at Pasto (the Fort) which was so convenient...

I chose Mars to have dinner with us coz for the past 2 years, everytime i took her out for her birthday dinner, it was always with Mars. So to make it less obvious, i did the same thing again this year... so nothing looked suspiscious or out of the norm. Pretty slick, right? By this time, my heart was pounding and i was getting mad nervous. I didn't know if people were gonna show up on time or if the setup was gonna get done on time or whatever. I was just nervous because of the fact that i didn't know whether i was gonna pull this off perfectly or not at all.

Dinner seemed like forever and right after, as soon as, i finish my meal, my phone beaps and it's her friends saying that they were already at the venue ready to set up but the manager wouldn't let them in.

We were having the party at The Prince Of Jaipur (at the Fort) and the Norah Jones after party was gonna be there too at the same night, so they were being really strict. However, i had talked to the owner and had arrangements already... but my sisters' friends didn't know what to do and i didn't wanna leave them there by themselves hanging.

I ditch my sister with Mars. haha! headed to Jaipur, worked my magic, set up, and everything was in place. All that was left was for the rest of her friends to show up...

Norah Jones "party" had reserved the whole entire 2nd floor. I had the balcony for my sister's surprise, but they said we had to be out of there by 10pm coz they had to set up and get ready for Norah Jones. I told em it would only take 2 minutes for the surprise and then we would transfer downstairs to our reserved tables. It was gonna be quick... so i thought.

10:15pm and half her friends still haven't arrived. I was nervous as hell and i had ditched Aix an hour and 15minutes... and still counting. I full on ditched. Told her i had to go to a meeting at Jaipur for something... and just left. She completely understood... but i felt bad for leaving her for so long. I didn't know whether she was getting suspiscious or anything.

Then the manager comes up to me and tells me that we really had to leave because the Norah Jones Party was gonna be arriving earlier than expected. I didn't have a choice--- i texted my sister saying "The meeting is taking too long. Just come over. It's nothing confidential anyway." I told the manager i just needed 5 more minutes and i was nervous as hell. I so wanted it to work.

Finally, people arrived, the set up was perfect... the cakes were in one table, the presents on another and ALL her friends bunched up in the middle... i met Aix at the bottom of the stairs, walked her up to the balcony, and BaM!! "SuRpRiSE!!!"

She totally didn't expect it... and she cried!!! =) and I cried!!! haha!

The night went on... and it was just pure FuN. I was high on happiness the whole night. =) Aix was happy and that was all that really mattered.

*PhEw* glad that's done and over with.

HapPy 18th BirthDaY Aix. I LuV yOu! =)