A Welcome Home Surprise

It's been three weeks. The longest Stefin and I have been apart since we've been together. I am thrilled the whole airplane ride. Knowing that I was going to see him that afternoon had even made getting up at 4am for the ride to the airport totally doable (thanks for the lift Dad!). Sitting in my aisle seat- I suddenly grin. I feel flutters in my stomach. Was that the baby? This is the week where it's possible to start to feel it moving. It felt a little different than butterflies I've had before- but I'm still not sure if it was really it or just a combination of excitement and gas.

Finally we land and the man of my dreams comes and picks me up. We are still chatting as we get out of the car, lugging bags into the house, when a guy who looks like an older version of this one

approaches us, beer in one hand and manilla envelope in the other.

"Dude," he says, "This is for you."

Stefin and I look at each other. "What?"

He looks at us and at the address on our gate. "Yeah. It's for you." And he walks calmly away like an apparition dissolving into thin air.

I open it and find a letter instructing us that we have been assigned to a series of missions. It informs us that we will have to work together, we will have to bring our swimsuits, and borrow some of Keith's hair gel.

Mission 1 took us to the All-Ways Lounge, the bar and venue where we performed our burlesque show together (the beginning!). We were supposed to ask the bartender for the "Verdant Dinosaur." The clue assured us we would be expected.

An Alice-in-Wonderland abstract-Raggedy-Ann with glittered-red lips and painted on freckles addressed us as soon as we walked in.

"What do you two want?"

"We're here on a mission. We need to ask about a 'verdant dinosaur.'"

"Ah-hah. I might know something about a dinosaur."

She gave us envelope #2, which was fat.

Inside were further instructions and a boostier.

Once we completed our mission (getting a stranger in the bar to wear said boostier over a bare chest and apply hair product), we bought our volunteer two beers (with money included in the envelope!) and set out to our next destination.

Our next clue led us to Lake Ponchatrain.

The road we were instructed to take was closed, so, thinking we were unfortunately spoiling our mission-designers' master plan, we parked at a different section of the lake, ate our hummus and baba-ganoush, and completed 50% of our task to take a swim. (Stefin is often more daring than I.)

(Note: This is me doing "the swim," not holding my nose due to any unpleasant scent.)

Thinking we had accidentally evaded our clue-makers, we figured we'd just go home. It was past eight at this point and it had been a long day. Cuddling at home sounded perfect. But when we got back to the car, another envelope sat snugly beneath a wiper blade. #3, it said. The game goes on.

This one took us to the little park where we had our first real date. This is an adorable little triangle of a park, and last night it was illuminated by strings of white lights. We walked up to the stone chess tables in time to see Adam, Anna, and Colleen run quickly away.

This envelope had song lyrics in it and instructions to sing along, making sure not to proceed to page 2 until the time came.

Stefin pulled on an accordion that was stashed beneath the table, and this was my first indication that he had been in on this hunt the whole time. As I heard and saw what song it was we were about to sing together, I knew he was the mastermind.

I tried my best not to let myself full-on-cry as we sang.

This is what happened next:

Something I didn't notice until Stefin pointed it out to me later- was the pattern of the first-letters of each line in each of the rhyming clues. Go back and look.

I feel like the luckiest girl in the history of the universe.