The Rouse

Well, it's finally here folks. The Big Surprise that I've been eluding to for the past few weeks. I can't tell you how relieved I am to finally have it out in the open.

Jimmy celebrated his 30th yesterday, and I thought I would add to the magic a little bit, by asking all his best friends to fly in for the occasion. Remarkably, all five were able to arrange it on their calendars. I have been so excited, and I've waited for over a month to reveal the secret to him. So here's how it went down.

Without going into great detail I'll try to give you a summary of how we pulled it all together. I will introduce the scenario to you by explaining it in "friend" and "acomplice" terms.

Friend 1 : Arrived earlier in the week with his wife and son, supposedly on business. This was not out of the ordinary since he has traveled to Denver many times in the past months. We ate dinner with them on wed. night to throw Jimmy off any weird vibes. He was oblivious.

Friend 2 : Arrived thursday and stayed with Friend 1 until friday's festivites. He was to be a Surprise for all the other friends too....no one but Friend 1 and myself knew he was coming.

Friend 3 : Arrived friday morning and waited with me at the airport for Friend 4 and Friend 5.

Friend 4 : Arrived an hour after Friend 3 and come to find out had shared the final flight into Denver with Friend 5. Weird.

Friend 5 : Arrived, like I said, with Friend 4, and met up with me and Friend 3.

Ok, so I load Friends 3, 4, 5 (and 4's wife) into my car and head back to my house to drop off the luggage. Friends 1 and 2 are set to meet us at my pad around 1:30pm. Friends 3, 4 and 5 are surprised to see Friend 2 and have a great little reunion of their own in my house.

2pm we all pile into 2 cars and make our way to Jimmy's office.

Accomplice 1, 2 and 3 are all at Jimmy's office waiting for "the call" from me to alert them of our arrival.

The plan was to call Accomplice 1 at our arrival, only for him and Accomplice 2 to arrange an impromtu meeting in Accomplice 2's office. While Accomplice 2 and 3 "meet" with Jimmy, I help sneak in (along with the help of Accomplice 3) Friends 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Once inside, we go to the conference room and close the door. Accomplice 1 and I had arranged to have a newspaper in the room for Friends 1-5 to hide behind.

So, as I get settled with my camera between Friend 1 and 2 we all wait for Jimmy to make his way into the conference room. Accomplice 3 then goes to inform Accomplice 1 and 2 of our arrival.

Accomplice 1 and 2 then tell Jimmy that they have something they want to show him.....they leave Accomplice 2's office, and we wait.

Friend 1, Friend 2, Friend 3, Friend 4, and Friend 5 are all in place!

Accomplice 1, opens the conference room door to reveal the sneaky bunch. Slowly, Friend 5 reveals himself.....then Friend 1......then Friend 3......then Friend 4.....then Friend 2. Jimmy is in complete shock at this point as to whether or not this is really happening. The look on his face was priceless. It couldn't have been any better!

Kudos to all that were involved in making Jimmy's 30th birthday a memorable one! He's still floating!

Oh, and give me some time on the Party pics.....I've got Friend 2, Friend 3, Friend 4 and Friend 5, all crashing at my house. They'll be here soon...be patient!