Bravo's Surprise Mexicano Party

What a super long but fun day!

Everything actually started last week when I realised that my track teammate, Bravo's birthday was coming up this Saturday. I'd heard from his wifey that since nobody seemed to remember his birthday last year, he was pretty sad. And since we've never celebrated his birthday in all three years of college as a team, I decided that something had to be done this year round...

Alejandra and I then went about planning a surprise birthday party for Bravo this Friday, but we found out on Wednesday night that he had to work on that evening so we pushed it back to Thursday (today.. or I guess since it's 02:15 now, yesterday).

When I found out that we had to rush the party for Thursday night, I was kind of upset because it meant that we couldn't do a lot of things. For one, that meant that we wouldn't have time to make maracas, paint the cups in Mexican patterns, etc. Also, I didn't know how people would respond to last-minute party invitations.

Even worse still, when I woke up this morning, Alejandra who was supposed to help with most of the party stuff called to tell me that she would be held up at work all day and would not return until the party has almost started.

So starting in the afternoon, I had to begin by painting the tablecloth and getting all the other stuff ready.

Luckily some trackies came over to help out with the decorations.

Because Bravo's Mexican, we decided to throw a Mexican-themed party. It goes without saying that at a Mexican party, there should be Mexican food, so I put out stuff to make tacos and burritos.

Got a nice cake from a filippino bakery nearby.

Got people on standby in the dorm at 20:30.

Got sprayed with silly string.

Oh boy you should have seen his face when he walked in and the room was all dark and stuff! I took a video that's why I have no pictures of what happened...

But basically, he walked in the door and it was all quiet and dark, then everybody jumped out from their hiding places and screamed "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". Well some... The other half screamed "FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!"

I think we actually made him tear up a bit.

Then it was time to eat!

Everyone was famished by the time Bravo arrived at 21:30.

Customary cake on the nose.

This was my second burrito after three tacos.... And this is the only burrito that was not filled to the brim.

Blindfolded Bravo so that we could play something similar to hitting the pinata. In reality, it was a balloon tied to Sacca's crutches. I've have no pictures again, because I took a video instead.

After everyone got nice and full of tacos and burritos and Jarritos, we sat down to play a really noisy game of Taboo.

Gave Bravo his birthday T-shirt signed with well-wishes from everybody.

All in all, it was a great success!

But I never thought it would be this exhausting to plan and prepare a party for twenty to twenty-five people. I mean, I work in the catering business, so I've been accustomed to seeing events for hundreds of guests get executed with precision. I guess my company is just so good at what they do that I take their professionalism for granted.

It was simply not easy to get everybody coordinated, all the food cooked, all the timing correct and everything. After today, I respect my bosses a little bit more.

Maybe it's because I'm already stressed out by other non-party related stuff, but I'm glad I did it anyway. And I'm glad I prayed last night for everything to go smoothly...

So that's it. This will by my last fun event for the next month or so!

Back to some serious work. Now I really REALLY get to bury my head in schoolwork...

I'm also really grateful that God kept my mouth clean today. It's not so much about cursing bad words, but rather, sometimes I say things that are just, for lack of a better word, inappropriate. Or sometimes, it's just the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. But I just prayed hard about it last night and God definitely stepped in today. I was quite worried that with being around so many people and all, that I would lose control of my mouth, but I didn't!

Well I'm glad I'm not being cooped up by myself anymore these days, as compared to the days of 2008-2009. But as much as I love hanging out with people, I'm beginning to truly understand why Jesus liked to spend so much time away from crowds praying...

I'm not saying that I'm Jesus, but as a disciple of Christ, I'm starting to see how being a living testimony to the non-Christians around me is so energy-sucking that I just need more and more of God's presence to even get me through the day.

Wow it's 02:49.

Goodnight!