Magical Virtual Surprise Party

My eldest, Mark turned 30 last week and I was bereft that I couldn’t be with him. He was planning a party for himself, close family, and friends in Scottsdale which unraveled 10 days before his birthday as California was shuttering. He now lives out of state and I miss him. Facetime is great and a weekly check-in is wonderful but to not have him over for Sunday supper, or to go on a hike with him and the dogs leaves a hole. I love that he’s doing his life and following his journey. Motherhood is bittersweet after all. I was just bummed to not be seeing him for real to celebrate his day.

 A few days before his birthday I decided to forgo my pity party. Why not do a virtual surprise party? So with a few emails and a couple of calendar invites, we got it done.  On Zoom video precisely 7 minutes before he joined, everyone joined the video. He joined at 2:22 to celebrate the time of his actual birth. I fooled him. Told him I had a ton of morning client calls and could he join me at 2:22 to commemorate the actual time he was born and so we could catch up.  Voila!  In he popped and 16 other little screen-heads all said Surprise!!!! Hahaha! Got ya! A surprise indeed.

 We got to chat for a half-hour. We all caught up – family all in distant ports – North Carolina, Portland, Los Angeles, Washington DC, the Bay Area. What a gift it was. Later he sat down to homemade pasta Bolognese (pasta and all!) and then sent this photo. I guess he who has the TP rules the roost these days. Made me smile to see humor come through. Between virtual cocktail parties and the way we all commune now with social distancing we managed to pull off our very first Virtual Surprise Party.  

Who says it can’t be done!?  Human ingenuity wins every time.