BAM! It's your birthday!

This Wednesday was Lorraine's 23rd birthday, so Sonya and I decided we would surprise her by decorating her cubicle area. I stopped by Target after my class ended on Monday in search of the most obnoxious "It's my birthday" hat thing I could find. But alas, others beat me to it and there was nothing left.

No tiara. No Hat. Not even an "I'm the birthday girl" button!

Who knew there was such a demand for obnoxious birthday accessories?

All was not lost. I picked up a Happy Birthday Banner and some balloons. We still had streamers from when we decorated Mercedes' (my supervisor) office the week before. So in terms of decorations, I was set.

So Wednesday morning I raced to work, hoping that Lorraine didn't decide to come into work at 5am to leave at 2pm, like she sometimes does. She decided to snooze that morning so I was in the clear.

I quickly hung the banner from the ceiling directly above her desk. The next task was the streamers. We have these overhead drawers above our desks. Instead of putting streamers all over our office, I thought it would be funny to tape all the streamers in her overhead and have them fall out onto her desk when she opened it. Sounds simple enough...

Taping the streamers was easy. But everytime I closed the drawer, the streamers would fall through the cracks. This was absolutely unacceptable. In an effort to create the ultimate surprise, I spent the next 10 minutes struggling to keep the blue and purple streamers contained inside the overhead. Time was running out and just as I was about to give up hope of an awesome surprise, I discovered a hook thing on the inside of the drawer that I could shove the streamer ends into.

Matt 1, Overhead 0.

I didn't have the energy to blow up the balloons, but it didn't matter since I had the streamers figured out. But Sonya came back and needed my help with the monitor, so we switched places and I asked her for help with the balloons.

On my way back, I ran into Sonya, who had left the gift she had gotten Lorraine in her car.

"Did she open the overhead?"

"No"

"Ok, I'll wait until you get back"

Sonya taped balloons all along the back of her chair and on top of the overhead.
(Note: Sonya must secretely be a professional balloon blower [Or maybe a clown...?] because it was alot of balloons. Amazing!)

Sonya gives Lorraine her gift (Burt's Bees Lotion. Girls and their lotion!) upon getting back from her car. My gift (Cup of Noodles and Shrimp-Flavored Chips) is inside the overhead, which I now need to get her to open, without being uber-obvious.

Solution: I ask her to describe forms for the study that she is fixing. Sonya steps out during it, so I have to keep finding info to ask her about until she got back.

"Can I see what a completed form looks like?"

"Sure!"

Lorraine opens the overhead. Matt excitedly holds his breath.

Instead of the smooth fall of streamers out of the overhead, like I imagined. It was a mess of streamers, some stuck inside the nook. Lorraine was still surprised...Or confused.

Lorraine liked the food gifts. Then Mercedes walks in with a chocolate cake she bought for Lorraine. All that was left was a slice for Richard...Sorry BMT Department. No yummy cake for you!

All in all, it was a fun morning for Lorraine, despite having to work on her birthday and look after some monitors. Lorraine and Sonya are both really great co-workers, so its been fun doing these surprise office birthdays for both of them.


"Take the picture already. I want me some cake!"
(Richard's card fit in perfectly)

















More pictures to come.

Brownie points for someone (besides Lorraine) who gets the title