Surprise.

Yes, there was a reason I wasn't blogging for a few days. Alas, the general readership of this blog consists of people whom I was unable to include on the inside of a surprise I'd been planning for quite a while. It actually was quite annoying because I was wanting to blog about all the complicated steps taken as preparation, and I wasn't able to as it would have spoiled it.

I really outdid myself this time. Those who know me know that spontaneity is the name of the game, and I've been known to do some VERY crazy things for people, from spur of the moment road trips, to jacking the father's car in the middle of the night and driving several hundred miles to spend a few hours with someone and immediately come back, to blowing gambling winnings on a totally random trip to New York City to see RENT. I love surprises, even though I somehow always manage to spoil the ones aimed at me. The one's that people have managed to put over me though always blow me away.

But seriously, this just crushes everything I've done in the past. There's only one person I would have done something this grandiose for, and you can guess who that is. To quote an earlier blog around the time we first met: "Germany. It?s a country in Europe quite far away."

As of last Thursday, I had been all over the United States, but had never left the country other than Canada. I'd never been on a plane longer than about five hours. I'd never been somewhere I didn't speak the language. These are just a few of the firsts that took place over the weekend. And there were a lot.

Due to JSUNT starting in the next few weeks, I will be unable to take basically any leave at all other than Thanksgiving and Christmas and thus will be unable to do any sort of travelling to see my girlfriend during that time. That pretty much left these last few weekends as my only real chances to ever visit her where she lives and works at Rhein Main Air Base, Germany. She had been led to believe that taking international leave was basically impossible, but in reality it just requires a bunch of extra paperwork and legwork. Basically the last thing she would have ever expected is that I'd actually just show up on her doorstep in person. She'd mentioned it once or twice, and I'd just told her that "she knew what the situation was" and not told the truth without really lying. Just sort of skirting the issue as they say. I have a new motto when it comes to life in our relationship. With me, ANYTHING is possible.

I researched plane ticket prices and after consultation with the father it was decided that the trip was worth cashing in some frequent flyer miles for. The next problem was the lack of a passport. Having not ever gone anywhere, I'd never needed one. Now all of a sudden I needed one in a hurry. The only place that did them in an expedient manner was Houston, a few hundred miles away. Better yet they only did them by appointment, and closed by 3pm each day. Thus I had to make the latest possible appointment, and then haul ass over there from San Antonio after my morning muster to make sure I got there on time. Funniest thing that happened that day was coming out of the elevator and opening the door of suite 1600 where I thought the passport center was, and finding absolutely nothing. A completely bare suite, no furniture or anything. Beautiful views of downtown Houston in all directions, but just a bunch of totally empty rooms. As I stood by a floor to ceiling window looking out over the city I called my dad to double check the address, thinking to myself that it was April 1st, and someone might have played a really horrible April Fools Day joke and I'd driven all this way for nothing. Turns out it was suite 1400, and I was soon on my way in the right direction. Was pretty funny though. As it was I made it in plenty of time, but was lacking passport photos, thinking they did them onsite. Paid some ridiculous amount to have them done at one of the little places sprinkled around the building, and headed back upstairs. The whole passport process was pretty painless, just had to make sure you had all the right documentation. They ended up getting it done within about an hour, so I only had to go down and refill the meter at the sweet parking spot I snagged once. Sucks to have like four cars fighting through the lot to get to where you're headed to see you put more money in and walk away, but that's the way it goes. So yeah eventually I get the little blue booklet called a passport with my interesting looking mug on the front page. Then came the sitting in traffic for hours ride back to San Antonio, during which she called a couple times, but I had to make up lame excuses so she wouldn't figure out I had been driving continuously for several hours and want to know why.

Passport in hand, I then began the lengthy process of getting my leave approved through the squadron. I'll spare you the gory details, but basically multiple safety briefings were required, anti-terrorism training, signatures from various higher-ups, and a multitude of forms and paperwork. Somehow this all got squared away a couple days before my expected departure. During this time I'd managed to get the e-mail of her best friend from her, she of course thinking that it was so I could send her flowers or something.

We developed quite an elaborate plan on various levels to get me there unannounced. She actually took it further than even I expected, even from what I hear making a "scoresheet" for their "apartment cleaning competition" so that my girlfriend wouldn't be embarassed by the state of the place when I just appeared out of nowhere. She also planned various events throughout the weekend so there was no chance of my girlfriend trying to skip town or whatnot.

So finally everything was set, and I left around 10am for the airport, happy as a clam. I packed light and thus had a carryon for the few days I'd be there, which made things quite easy along the way when it came to not having to check luggage or send it through customs. Totally overestimating the time it would take to get to the gate, I checked in with no line whatsover at the Delta counter, then basically walked through security without ever stopping, and was at the gate a while before 11, with my flight not departing until 12:30. Ordered one of the covered pizza things you usually see somewhere like Sbarro from the italian place inside the airport, since the guy said it had like four kinds of meat in it or something and it sounded good. As it turns out I'm pretty convinced he must have said four kinds of BEET or something, because there were way too many vegetables for my liking. I eat veggies, but not on my pizza. Of course this was only the first of many food orders gone wrong during the weekend.

I was a bit apprehensive as I finally boarded the plane, as it was a 767 and I was on the aisle of the middle section, and with someone large next to me would not be able to sleep in any sort of comfortable position as I tend to need something to lean on. Of course someone was in my seat, when they were assigned to the middle one, so I had to bump them over, and sadly as expected my row was a full one. It was only several minutes later when the stewardesses came by with papers that they said the flight was far from full and we were welcome to move to a more spacious area if we liked. I asked the guy in the middle if he wanted to move, and he responded in gibberish, which was the first time I realized the language thing was going to be an issue during the trip at times. Through hand signals we communicated somewhat and I decided to take over the row in front of us while he moved into my seat. This put me about two rows from the big screen, prime viewing for the movie and tv shows that were to come. My strategy was to tilt the center seat back all the way and leave the other two upright, so I could use them to lean on with a pillow on either side of my head to compensate for shifting back and forth. This would have been a really good strategy, had I not been so nervous. I maybe got two hours total sleep on the trip over, which pretty much sucked. There was only one movie, then an hour or two of tv, and then they shut everything down for the night and the last four hours were pretty much boredom. Too nervous to read AF literature that I'd brought with me, I amused myself with the crossword puzzle and read USA today cover to cover, and basically just did a lot of lying there with my eyes closed thinking about the hundreds of possibilities that might come up when I tried to surprise her and how each of them might result. Eleven or twelve hours of flight later I touched down in Frankfurt, Germany, at around 8am the next morning. Unfortunately we'd been circling for the previous half hour due to traffic in the pattern, lengthening the already lengthy flight some more. Nothing like watching the little airplane on the compass tracker on the big screen soooo close to getting there and then turn around and go the opposite direction. Depressing. Out I popped eventually, into what I thought would be bitter cold, but turned out to be nothing I wasn't used to. Customs consisted of showing my passport to someone and having them stamp away, and then off I went to wander the airport following the exit signs. Luckily they had everything in English too, so it was pretty straightforward, although my gate was as usual about a half mile from the main area of the terminal. I eventually made it there and the best friend found me, with a big grin on her face that brought a big grin to mine as we giggled about what was to come. She then made a beeline right through the place to where she was parked, as I did a lot of neck craning and staring like a typical tourist. Was my first time in a Porsche, wasn't brand new or anything, but hey I can't complain.

The Air Base actually shares a runway with Frankfurt International, so it was a very short trip over to her place from there. We made a quick stop to pick up a couple roses that would signify two months together, and then went over to the best friend's place to call my girlfriend and see what she was up to. Turns out she was still over at work finishing up a few things even though she had the day off, and said she'd be over in about ten. We developed a hide in the kitchen and pop up behind her as she walked in strategy, which was foiled as ten min later we called again, and she was still there fiddling around, so we made up an excuse and said we'd meet her over there. So over to one of the office buildings we went, as my pulse started to double and triple as usual when she's in the general vicinity. I just kept smiling thinking about the possibilities, and knowing I'd come so far, and I was almost there. We had her best friend go in first, and tell her to "close her eyes and count to eight." Now this is what I had planned for LAX back a couple weeks ago when I was going to surprise her but instead messed up her surprise so I expected the number eight would tip her off right away. As it was though after some rebuttal she just closed her eyes and began to count.

As she finished I strode in from the other room, the last few steps of a several thousand mile journey, duffle bag and roses in hand, smiling as bigly as ever. After opening her eyes, my girlfriend followed her best friend's gaze towards the doorway, and as soon as she saw me...

Sounds like a good place to pause. Wouldn't want to make this post too long.