Here's how it went down.
My sisters and I like to get together for a "spa day" whenever I'm in town. Since my younger sister Chela was going to be working the whole week, we were going to try to do it on Friday evening instead of in the morning like we usually do. Anne, my older sister, called one day and offhandedly remarked that she'd forgotten that she'd agreed to host a Mary Kay party for my cousin Leti (an MK rep) on Friday so we were going to have to do our "spa day" in the morning without Chela. Chela said it was okay with her so I agreed.
That same week, Chela took me to the mall to buy some maternity clothes then we joined our cousin Leti at the movies to see "Sex in the City." Neither of them mentioned the Mary Kay party, and as I hadn't really been invited, I didn't give it another thought. Back at mom's, though, Chela asked if I was planning to attend the party. She seemed surprised when I told her I'd probably just stay home and watch movies, but she argued convincingly that our sister put on pretty good parties and that I should attend if at least for the food. She sealed it by saying that both she and our mom would be there as well so I agreed to join them...again, without really thinking anything of it. I would've planned on attending anyway if Anne had asked, but I'd assumed it was just for her teacher friends. Besides, I needed a new tube of that super duper hand cream MK sells.
Here are some of the other clues I later missed:
**Friday morning, after my "spa day" with Anne, I asked my mom for her SUV. Oddly, Mom seemed a bit surprised by my request and somewhat reluctant to let me borrow her truck saying that she needed to run some errands. Then, she suddenly capitulated and said I could pick it up in an hour. I told her that I didn't really have any plans so she may as well keep it since she needed it, but that I'd call her if something came up. Actually, I was perfectly content to stay home in the cool A/C and watch movies all afternoon since my folks have all the movie channels, hehe.
**Friday afternoon, Juanita, my parents' housekeeper and cook, was folding my freshly laundered maternity clothes and brought one of the "nicer" ones to me suggesting I wear it to the party that evening. I don't recall what I told her, but I don't think I agreed, haha.
**When Chela came by later to pick Mom and I up for the party, she asked if I wasn't planning on wearing any sort of makeup. My sister knows very well that I don't normally wear any makeup, but she's always insisting that I, at least, brush on something for the "shine." Either way, I sure wasn't going to put on anything just to have it washed off at the party so she reluctantly dropped it.
**When we arrived at Anne's house, I thought I spotted a friend's car parked in the street outside and fleetingly wondered if she and my sister knew each other well enough for my sister to have invited her to this makeup shindig. The thought, however, left my mind almost as soon as I had it, and the 3 of us trooped to the front door and rang the bell.
**Anne answered the door herself and whispered urgently to us (or so I thought) that there were "a lot of people" there. Again, I sort of wondered why she seemed odd about it since wasn't it preferable to have a lot of people attend a product party as opposed to having only a few? Again, the thought was fleeting and disappeared from my consciousness as we entered the house.
**The lights in the kitchen/family room were off as we entered, and I watched in puzzlement (and a touch of consternation) as Chela boldly entered the room and flicked the lights on. I thought to myself that Leti must've been showing a short video on proper skin care techniques or something of that sort and wondered what had gotten into Chela to just go in there and mess it up like that. (BTW, those of you who know Leti would understand why I'd think she'd be showing a video, haha.)
**I walked in after Chela and beheld several old friends of mine sitting around the room. I briefly wondered how (and why) my sister would've invited my old friends to her Mary Kay party, but again, I didn't really think too much about it figuring they were also friends or acquaintances of hers.
Someone or other must've eventually called out "Surprise!" but it still took another moment or two of me looking around the room to realize that every single one of the guests was focusing on me and smiling widely.
Boy, was I ever surprised! The biggest surprise I've ever had I'm sure (aside from that of finding out that I'm pregnant probably). It's a shame that no one had their camera out because I'm sure it would've made for a great shot, haha.
So that, in a nutshell, is what happened. The reason my mom needed her truck was because they used it throughout the day to bring over a bunch of chairs from the restaurant's party room as well as decorations and dishes of food prepared by Salsa's cooks especially for this party. (The food WAS good, btw, just as Chela had promised ;).
It was a lot of fun catching up with so many of my old friends. I was very moved to see that they'd turned out to celebrate this latest development in my life considering that hardly any of us really stay in touch anymore these days. Even more startling was the fact that this entire party was apparently conceived and planned out in just 3 days including the invitations! Wow, those are some good friends!
Thanks a million to my mom and my sisters for doing all this for me. I was really touched. Thanks also to my aunt Ampere, who made many of the decorations herself and helped my mom put it all together. To those of you who came (even those of you who gifted me with shockingly pink baby clothes ;), I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for me. :)
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