Today’s question is …
The most surprised you’ve ever been….
I don’t like surprises. I like surprising people but not don’t surprise me. There’s something about losing that small bit of control over myself in the split second that I’m taken aback by something.
With that said, I haven’t been surprised often in my life. I think it’s largely due to the fact that the people in my life know that’s a sure fire way to piss me off so they don’t do it.
However, there have been a few times I’ve been pleasantly, and not so pleasantly, surprised in my life.
When I was pregnant with Blake and my water broke at 3:00 AM eight weeks before he was due to be born. I was in denial. I convinced myself I was NOT in labor because it was way too early and I just sucked it up and went back to bed. (My water broke on the toilet – a little TMI for you). When the contractions became too much to bear I finally cried uncle and called my doctor’s office at 9:00 AM. Whey they heard my story they told me to immediately go to the ER – Blake was born nearly three hours later – a whopping 4 lbs and 12 ounces. (He spent six weeks in the NICU because his lungs hadn’t fully developed). That was an unpleasant, and pleasant, surprise. And it shows how incredibly naive I was. To be fair, it was my first pregnancy and I was clearly clueless.
This next surprise was in our first house together. It was a rental house. Somehow, and I still can’t believe he pulled it off, Kevin hid a HUGE curio case in our spare bedroom. He covered it with a quilt, or something and I just never saw it. I know that sounds crazy, how can you not see a huge curio case? But I never went into that bedroom, we used it as storage and it seems like there were quite a few other big pieces in that room and I just never … realized that it was in there. He unveiled the curio case on Christmas morning. I had wanted something to put all of my Precious Moment figurines in, I was getting quite the collection and no place to put them, and he was tired of seeing them accumulate, I suppose. Anyway, I was GENUINELY surprised, and impressed, that he managed to pull one over on me. I’ll never forget that Christmas, it was fun. (Side note: Speaking of Precious Moments – are those still a thing? Kevin and I were talking about them the other day. I wonder if they are worth anything? Because I have quite a few to get rid of if that’s the case).
One of my most unpleasant surprises was in 2010. The kids were at school, Kevin was on his was to work, and I was pattering around the house when I got a call from an unknown number. Of course, I didn’t answer the phone because 1. I hate talking on the phone and 2. I especially hate talking to salespeople. But I (thankfully) checked the message right away). It was from a man I didn’t know telling me there had been an accident. I could hear the sirens in the background. He said that Kevin had been in a motorcycle accident and they were taking him to the ER. Kevin had asked the man to call me. I have never experienced such raw fear before that moment. I immediately changed into presentable clothes (because of course, I had been cleaning house and looked like something a dog would have dragged into his master’s house) and raced to the hospital. Kevin had shattered his pelvis and they were shipping him to a medical-teaching school for specialized treatment. (i.e. to put the bag o’ glass back into a pelvis – that’s how the ER doctor described his pelvis to me). I will never forget that stomach dropping, nausea-inducing, moment in my life.
Maybe that’s why I don’t like surprises overall, because the surprises that I remember are not GOOD surprises. Hmmm ….
Your turn.
Write From Karen 