It's Shannon, bitch: The comeback

SURPRISE! I'm back. Maybe just for the day, maybe forever. We shall see.

And surprises are the theme for today's post. Life really is full of 'em. Some pleasant. Some unwanted.

The old me hated surprises.

When I was 13, I came home from to a weekend church retreat only to find that one, my grandma had had a pretty severe stroke, was completely paralyzed on one side of her body, and was in ICU, and two, my parents were splitting up. Surprise.

One night a few months later, my mom surprised me by telling me she was picking up and moving 4 or so hours away. The next morning. And I had to go with because there was no way in Hell she was letting me stay with my dad. This was during the rough patch of their split up. I guess technically the whole split up and divorce was a rough patch, but when we moved, there was definitely a lot of ugly fighting going on. So the next morning, we packed our things, loaded up the car, and off we went. New town, new life. Didn't tell anyone, especially my dad. Surprise.

My mom pulled another fast one on me my freshman year in college. She was picking up and moving again. From Texas to Florida. In a months time. She had met this guy through a mutual friend 4 years earlier, and they had been talking eversince. She was ready to take their relationship to the next step, and that meant she had to abandon her life in Texas. And her daughter. My mom's quite impulsive, huh? I guess I get that from her. Anyway... Surprise.

This one isn't quite as unpleasant or scarring, but... The day before I turned 21, my co-workers surprised me with a birthday cake clad with 21 blazing, pink candles. Sweet, yes. But the pictures from that night were far from cute. For one thing, I had been at work all day and it showed. Someone should have warned me. I would have freshened up a bit in the bathroom first. Secondly, the ginormous grin I had plastered on my face was completely ridiculous. It's those types of surprises that I don't know how to respond to, and I hate that. Do I just stand there with a dumbfounded smile on my face? Should I cry because I'm so moved? Oh dear God, please give me some guidance. Well, guidance didn't come so I chose to grin like a bafoon. Surprise.

It wasn't until love came knocking on my door that I began to accept and long for surprises. Flowers for no reason at all. Unexpected phone calls in the middle of the night just so he could hear my voice before he fell asleep. Dates at mystery locations. And the biggest surprise of all, something I didn't see coming, falling in love.

February 14th, Adrian greeted me at my door in his best dressed with 12 of the most beautiful roses I had ever seen. We went to our favorite restaurant, Uncle Julio's, which was not a surprise. I knew we'd end up there. We ate our usual- fajitas. Not surprising. The waitress dropped the check and wished us a Happy Valentine's Day. What did surprise me was Adrian pushing the check to the end of the table, grabbing my hand, and saying a lot of sweet things that to this day, still blow me away. He then pulled out a little black box, said more sweet things, started to ramble because he was nervous, which made the moment even sweeter, and PROPOSED! It was during this surprise that I should have cried, but instead I chose to smile dumbfoundedly aaagain. I hate me sometimes. Regardless... Surprise!

About a month later, after a few weeks of feeling just downright strange all over, I took a pregnancy test. Yep, you read that right. Things are about to get personal. Aunt Flow didn't come to town in March. My mosquito bites were quite tender. There were some other tell-tale signs as well. So, feeling quite anxious, I bought me a package of two pregnancy tests at the grocery store, went to Adrian's, and peed on the stick. Those 90 seconds were the longest 90 seconds of my life! The result of the test that I definitely wasn't prepared for (ha ha ha?): "Pregnant." Adrian stood at one side of the bed. I sat on the other. Neither of us spoke. This truly was a surprise. I just couldn't decide if it was the pleasant kind or the unwanted kind. In Kourtney Kardashian-like disbelief, I grabbed the other test from the box and headed for the bathroom. I didn't have to pee, but I could care less. This was an emergency! Another 90 seconds later, we had our result. "Not Pregnant." What? I was sure it was going to come out positive. I was just starting to accept the fact that there was a little bitty baby in my stomach. Negative? Really? Well hmm. That was that. I had taken both tests. I guess all that was left to do was go to bed. Yeah right! How could I sleep?! There was a 50% chance that I was pregnant! I knew that I needed another test. Third time's a charm, right? But it was late, and nothing was open. We don't have Super Wal-Marts in Maryland, unfortunately. So the next day, it was back to the grocery store, back to the feminine products aisle, and back to test-taking. I was sooo nervous. I'll make this long story short for your sake. Both tests were positive. In April, the OB confirmed that I was 8 weeks pregnant. Surprise!

Quite a few things have been pleasantly surpising me lately too. Just recently, I discovered that Simply Orange orange juice with pineapple is simply delicious! Surprisingly, Tums don't taste as bad as a I remember, and thank God for that. My heartburn has been out of control lately. Yesterday, I noticed that my hair is probably the longest that it's ever been in my whole life. But with this newfound length comes untameableness (I think I made that word up.) so I guess that makes this surprise a little less pleasant than I thought. Instead of long, lustrous locks, I have a lion's mane. Hopefully I'll be able to deal with this little surpise and, in the words of Tim Gunn, make it work. Best of all, Fall snuck up on us all here in Maryland. All of a sudden the weather is perfect. 50 degrees. No more of that sticky, hot 80s crap. This is the most beautiful time of the year, folks!

Aren't you so glad I surprised you with this super long comeback post?!

♥,
Shannon

PS: "Surprise" looks misspelled. Or is that just me?