Thursday, February 26, 2009

A Birthday Nears...

Yep, another year older. I've never really been all that concerned with age, so it's no big deal. As I was thinking about birthdays, I couldn't help but remember what my co-workers and staff did for (TO) me to help me celebrate a couple of them.

Check this out:
This was what happened to my cubicle when I left for TWO HOURS to go to a meeting. A whole bunch of my co-workers planned the whole thing. Several rolls of aluminum foil went into this. It took me quite awhile to unwrap. Every pencil, ink pen, notebook, piece of paper, EVERYTHING in my cubicle was wrapped in aluminum foil. Well, everything except my volleyball trophies, which they left alone.

Here's another view, with a peek at one of the culprits (who's pretending to work).

So. You'd think they'd leave me alone the next year, right? Noooooooooooo.

By the next year I was in an office. With four walls. And I had a staff. A wonderfully silly bunch of people who decided that my birthday needed to be celebrated again.

This time they made a weekend event of it. There were spouses and children involved in the "decoration" of my new office. You see, not only did they decorate it; but they actually MOVED all my stuff (and I had a LOT of stuff) from one office to another. I had just been assigned the new space, and they were nice enough to take care of the move for me. On a Sunday afternoon.

And after they moved all my stuff, they proceeded to blow up more than 1000 BALLOONS and fill my new office from the floor to the top of the walls. I couldn't find any great pictures of that, but here you can have a glimpse of what I found. Three hours later, and many many many pops later, the balloons were gone. Except for the balloon shrapnel that was left all over the place.

Oh.

And the glitter.

One of my staff decided it would be fun if he put glitter in some of the balloons. Do you know what happens when you pop a glitter-filled balloon? Try it.

No aluminum foil this year. No balloons.

Sometimes I miss the people with whom I used to work. Funny thing is that I NEVER miss working.
:-)

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

haha that looks so cool i bet you wonder what will happen every birthday now.

Molly said...

this is so hilarious!see how much they loved you!
And--happy birthday to you!

Unknown said...

Sounds like a great group of people you used to work with -- that must have taken some time doing all that!

AWJ said...

That tin foil's hilarious. And I can just imagine the mess that glitter made.

Happy Birthday! :)

Kristin said...

AAwww..nothing says I love you like an aluminum wrapped chair... what a great memory to have! LOL
I hope you have a very happy birthday!

Unknown said...

this is so funny MaryLou!!! i've never seen anything like that before!!! really shows how much these people cared for you!!! Wishing you a very happy birthday and a super fab year!!!! :-)

Anonymous said...

Ha! This is great! I once did the balloon thing to a coworker, albeit not with glitter. Have to remember that. So evil!

Anonymous said...

okay funny, but i might be mad at having to unwrap all this stuff. i might just go home or fake pass out. make 'em feel bad and then go shopping.

Live, Love, Laugh, Write! said...

Happy Birthday! That's too funny what your coworkers did :P

Anna said...

Happiest of birthdays dear ML! What great memories those wonderful coworkers created!

I hadn't seen the aluminum foil wrapped cubicle before, but one of the boys my daughter went to high school with had his car saran-wrapped for his birthday!

Karen Gill said...

Happy Birthday Mary Lou!! (I accidentally posted on the wrong one-duh) and many many more!

Blessings,
Karen

Unknown said...

Oh how much fun it is to have people remember and really make is special! Looks like your co-workers really liked you. It also says that they knew you had a good sense of humor and wouldn't mind at all! Good for you, and Happy Birthday!!!

M Dawson said...

OK that is just the funniest blog post I have read this year. I told all my Twitter friends and sent them over here!!

THis looks just amazing!!!!

ShinyAdornments said...

Classic....you gotta love that your staff liked you that much to come in on the weekend.

Happy Birthday.
:-)

Anonymous said...

That is TOO funny! They even wrapped individual papers you had hanging in the cube! hahaha! It is all about the people huh.

Gina Alfani said...

Belated happy birthday!!

What an awesome group of festive people :)

Gregorio said...

Happy belated B-Day.That cubical would probably drive my eyes nuts,but it does look like they had fun doing it.Nice harmless fun ha ha ha.Take care.

Unknown said...

LOL....that is hilarious.
Now what are you going to do for pay back on the next persons Birthday!
Oh how this could get dangerous.
thank so much for sharing your surprise!

Have a very good day &
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY :)

DorothyL

Kim said...

How hilarious! I'll have to tell and show my partner this new idea to pull on her boss!

Last year one of the employees took an ET costume out of her office and put it on. She then went into the boss' office and sat in a chair that the costume had been sitting in (upright) exactly the way the costume had been sitting. After their boss had come back to her office and had been sitting there for about 10 mins. the person in the costume moved her hand just a bit and the boss went SCREAMING out of her office! I was told it was a sight to see, I still laugh about that one!

Brett
(found you through Entrecard)
VanFleetStreetDesign.etsy.com

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Goddess said...

I was bummed this year on my birthday. We in the editorial dept. used to always sort of turn up our noses to the celebrations and balloons and streamers in the other parts of the office, but last year, somehow, the trend migrated down to us. Everyone's birthday is posted on signs throughout the building so we all know when they are. So everyone in the editorial dept. got balloons and streamers (and some beyond that with the silly pranks too) on their birthdays. On my birthday - nada. Zip. Zilch. Nothing. No one even mentioned it.

Kikit said...

they were so thoughtful, sweet and creative! :)

Petula said...

That's hilarious and extremely cool. What a creative bunch.

Anna said...

I've left you an award at my blog...

Unknown said...

Oh that is too funny! I'm not sure if I would have been very happy to have to unwrap all that stuff though!

Lucky Girl said...

With all that aluminum foil, you shouldn't have had any worries about government mind control and whatnot. I hope you have a happy birthday this year!

Paul Eilers said...

Ha! Ha! Ha!

With friends like these...

Paul

Eat Well. Live Well.
ER BurnTheFat.com
PurpleGreenPops.com

Deb DiSalvo said...

That is so freaking funny! How fun to work with people like that - I would have been the one to head up the entire project! LOL!
Cheers,
Deb:)

Melanie said...

I love it! Favorite is the glitter filled balloons! Neat idea! Party in your cube!