surprises.....

i'm hoping that this blog comes out with the same gusto that i have in my head. tonight was one of the greatest nights of my life. my family threw a surprise party for my parents 50th birthday. my mom's birthday was march 26th and my dad's is april 9th. the party went great. my parents showed up to my aunt's house thinking that they were going to eat with my cousin and her fiance, they were wrong. there were a ton of people there. there were so many people that i knew at the party that i didn't know where to start. i decided to hang around some family until people made their way into other rooms of the house. those kinds of situations tend to stress me out a little. i try to make everyone feel as if they are extremely special. i do that b/c that is how i want to feel around my friends and family. if you have ever been put into a situation where you feel left our or that it doesn't really matter that you are there. you'll never want to feel like that ever again. i talked myself silly for who knows how long. i talked to some of the slappey's who i have not seen in such a long time. it was good to see them. i talked to will about his sga president run. it seems that the clinton's had a hand in derailing his campaign. i spoke to duski and daniel about auburn. by this time i had seen 3 grandparents, aunt, uncle, 3 cousins, niece. 2 sisters, spoken to kent and denise, and i think that's all. by this point, i'm having a ball. it's very demanding to be in a space with so many people. i really enjoyed the conversation and talking with everyone. this leads me to my favorite part of my evening. no it wasn't surprising my parents, seeing my grandparents, or getting sugar from my niece. my next conversation was with the nordykes. mr. nordyke had a stroke and has a hard time doing most normal things. i shook his hand, and it was a firm hand shake. he had to shake with his left hand, but i didn't give a shit. i was just happy that he was going to let me talk to him. i always find conversations go much better when you know it's a privilege to speak to someone. mr. nordyke has the ability to speak some things, and sometimes he gets frustrated when he knows what he wants to say, but he cannot say it. then there was mrs. nordyke. she was able to pick up on what he was saying, and all he would say was a few words. it was incredible to see that. i've spoken on here at length about mr. mcconaughey. he is so genuine, real, and one of a kind. i guess that is why i am able to relate to him so well. i thought of mcconaughey while speaking with mr. nordyke. i thought of how pure the conversation was. at one point he was getting frustrated and i told him, "i'm with you, and i'm listening." i wanted him to know that i didn't care if we were there all night, i wanted to hear what he had to say. the conversation was pure. i can't think of any other word to describe it? i hope that people are able to understand that. it was pure b/c i was committed to hearing what he had to say, and i was going to see everything he said like it was the first time i'd heard it. PURE. i'll post a video at the end of the blog where you can hopefully see the correlation b/w matthew and myself. i have to say that i don't speak of these instances as a pat on my back. i'm just sharing my night with the world wide web. at this point, i was trying to get something to eat. all this talking and not enough eating. the food was off the wall, i hope that there is some leftover. while eating i wanted to spend some time with my grandparents and aunt and uncle. i was able to do that. it felt really great to see them. of course every time i see them, it reminds me that i won't be able to spend boatloads of time with them. that really hurts my heart. i wish someone could capture my heart when i spend time with my grandad. i wish that something could capture how i feel when i'm with him and how freaking awesome it is. what i took away from tonight was a lot of joy, but more reality/pain. i see all of these people and i think that it would almost be impossible to spend as much time with all of them as i really wanted to. that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. seeing my grandparents and knowing that my time with them is fleeting, leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. all in all, it just reminded me that life is fleeting, but life is still beautiful. life is beautiful b/c you can have a party like that and see smiling faces all around. it's enjoyable for people to be able to see old friends and enjoy time with each other. life may be short, life may be cruel sometimes; but being able to have a night like this, makes living really worth it. i ended the night having a few brews and wine with ashley and her fiance. they said that they would visit the blog so i'll plug their website bohmanwedding.com. it's definitely a winner. no better way to end an awesome night with a great blog. i'm very pleased with the way all this came out. i have no idea how many people read this. if you do read it, let me know what you think. you can comment or email me drb0006@auburn.edu. here is a link of mcconaughey talking about having a couple bottles of wine with lance armstrong over a six hour dinner. it just shows you how awesome of a time you can have in pure conversation with someone. enjoy.......