Psssssttt!!!

...wanna hear a secret?

A little story first. R works from home 2 days a week now. Just so he can cut back on commute hours and apply those to actual work. So now, he ends up working for a good 11 hours at a stretch, with very few breaks in between. One evening, he broke just for dinner and bedtime for the boys and then went right back to work until 2 AM. It was crazy! And that's the little corner of our bedroom where's he's set up an office. Notice the chair?....that's where he sits all day. Doesn't look very comfy, does it? Won't do much good to the back either!

Okay, story over. Back to the secret. Or a part of it. Its his birthday tomorrow. Yes. His 35th. And I've been wondering how to make it special. I thought grand scale and wanted to buy him a ping pong table, and set it up myself in the basement...tie a red bow on it and lead him down to the surprise. But that was overshooting it! One lone person could not accomplish that! So then...what to do??? That's when he started working from home...and into those long stretched hours. Are you still with me??

So I thought...perhaps, I should keep it simple. Or rather, simple-r. Maybe I should knock that awkward chair out of the picture...and replace it with another one. Something more appropriate...and more comfortable perhaps. Hmmmm. There's an idea. I can just go to the store on any weekday morning, and check out the one I like. And I could just get together all my strength and willpower to lug that 35 lb box into the trunk of the car and then up the stairs to our guest bedroom, where he does not usually peep into. And on the eve of his birthday, as he is watching a movie downstairs...I could go ahead and assemble it myself. This one shouldn't be as hard as the ping pong table, right? Maybe just the wheels would be hard to clip on. Oh well, he can always do that later!
And since, its a birthday and all, maybe I should blow up a balloon or 2...or 3. And tie a red ribbon around it, and stick that desired red bow in the center. And then drag the chair across the landing to our bedroom, and position it just to see how it would look and click a picture, and then lug it back to its hiding place, while the movie goes on undisturbed downstairs!

I guess I could also get the boys to pitch in with a nice card. What should they put on it....a picture of a cake?? Balloons? Our family? The no. 35?? Or should it be formless, and without a design....but just be an expression of their independent spirit? Should I just give Winkie the colours and ask him to do what he pleases....so it would bring forth the uninfluenced, formless purity of his own thought? And how should the little one do it? Maybe I could just help him dip in the brush and leave the rest to his tender little hands. And my own contribution could be the words...as usual. And it could say....

Dear R...

As we move, inch by inch, from the form to the formless...may you take pleasure in this uninhibited expression of pure thought displayed by your children. And as you complete 35 years in this lifetime, may your eyes grow keener in the recognition of the universality that pervades.

Hand in hand..
A companion.

Yeaaaah! That's what I'll do! The logistics are great! It'll work out!

And so....what's the other part of the secret??? .... He doesn't know any of this yet, and will find out only tomorrow morning...but you guys get a sneak preview tonight! Talk about blog privileges!!!

Happy Birthday R!