In Which Cinderannie is Surprised

Well, on the 29th of October, I was working from 7:15pm-1:15am. I had spent the few days before that getting things ready – doing some cleaning and errands and miscellaneous things that needed doing, so that everything would be ready and done before both my birthday and the start of National Novel Writing Month. So I went to work fairly happily, knowing that the next day would be spent entirely with my grandparents, at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. And it just got better. I had my favorite zone to sweep in Tomorrowland – the one with the Fantasyland bridge – and I had my favorite trash run. That’s the bag trash, with the lightweight cart, where I get to go inside Space Mountain. So work was great, and the manager gave me a card and a little gift bag.
When it was nearly midnight, I took my gift bag and card and went over to a little wishing well off of a path that no one ever goes on, and I watched on my watch as it turned midnight, and my birthday. The way I think of birthdays is a little odd. It is my (in this case) 20th birthday starting at midnight. But I don’t turn 20 until I wake up in the morning. And I am not officially 20 until 7:54pm, which is my birth time. So yes, that’s how it works. Because I’m crazy. So once it was my birthday, I opened the card and the bag – which had candy in it. And then went back to finish my trash run.
When I arrived home, at nearly 2:30am, I was walking up the stairs and the thought occurred to me that perhaps my roommates would yell Happy Birthday or something when I came in. But I thought probably not. They were usually in bed at this time. As I unlocked the door, I noticed that the top lock was locked too, which was unusual. “I wonder if they locked it just so that they could hear when I was coming,” I thought, but didn’t take the thought very seriously. So I went in.
“Happy Birthday!” all my roommates yelled, and squirted me with a good deal of silly sting. And I went and looked around the apartment which was all decorated with crepe paper and confetti and banners. And then we had cake that Abby made, and they got birthday candles – we aren’t supposed to have candles – and we went out on the deck to light them and sing so we wouldn’t set off the fire alarm. We were lighting them when we noticed a security person in a golf cart right below our deck. Oh dear. In a giggling panic we gathered around the candles trying to block the glow, and they sang,
“Happybirthdaytoyou, Happybirthdaytoyou, HappybithdaydearJoanna, Happybirthdaytoyou!” and I blew them out, and we dashed back inside, cracking up laughing and hoping that security didn’t come knocking at our door. Which they didn’t, and we just ate our cake happily. And then I went to bed, at nearly 4am.

More to come…