I Hate It When My Parents Are Right.

I woke up late Monday morning to the sound of my dad marching into my room, playing We Are Young by Fun. waaay too loud on the iPad.

It didn't help that I actually like that song.  I wanted to sleep.  And when I'm trying to sleep, any song that loud is like an alarm clock, and just about as annoying.

He shook me around, trying to wake me up, but that was sorta the last thing on my agenda.

Then of course, my mom came bounding in.

"Jessica, you have to get up!" she cried, excitedly.  "There's something really cool that we're going to do, but you have to get up now if you want to find out!"

I moaned and buried my face in my pillow in reply.  What did they want to do now?

"Jess, come on!  If you don't hurry we're going to miss out!" she repeated.  "It's going to be really fun!"

There was no way I was getting back to sleep.  I knew they wouldn't leave me alone unless I said I didn't want to go wherever we were going.  But of course, that would mean I'd have to know where we were actually headed.

"What is it?" I sighed in defeat.

"Mom," my dad cut in, before she could reply.  "Don't tell her!  You have to let it be a surprise."

"Dad, just tell me what it is or I won't want to go," I sorta lied, becoming secretly curious.

He smiled, but didn't reply.

"Come on, Jessica," my mom pleaded again.

"What could possibly be so exciting?" I asked.  "Am I even going to like it?"

"Yes!"

My dad raised an eyebrow and in a tone of voice I know was meant to make me doubt, he said, "Well... maybe she won't.  We'll have to see."

I just wanted to collapse back down onto my pillow and close my eyes.  Maybe once they left I could pick my computer up and edit my next chapter.  Still, my mom was extremely excited.  But she got excited when we went to the park the last time.  Which might be a good place to be drafting a story, especially if you're writing on paper.  But on a sunny day, staring at a computer screen while trying to edit is extremely hard.

My mind tried to come up with every single way I could go about this.  How could I weigh this secret event that might turn out to be not worth the trouble when I got home and still had over a hundred pages to edit?  I had to get my editing done.  I'd been waiting all weekend for a day where I could sit and edit until I got sick of it.  (Which is a very long time for me).

Reluctantly, I got up.  It was the last thing I wanted to do, but what choice did I have?  The burning need to know was consuming me, despite my worries that they were just trying to get me excited then take me to the local athletic club.

I got in the car along with my brother and sister.  During the drive, I wondered what mood I should project.  If I act excited, and it turned out to be boring, then they'd have gotten the better of me.  But then, if I acted annoyed and skeptical (which was how I felt), and it turned out to be really awesome... well, they'd have gotten the better of me, too.

So, I tried to remain neutral.

We pulled into the movie theater and I couldn't help but smile.

We hadn't seen the movie The Avengers yet.

It was awesome.

Funny, action-packed, sorta sci-fi, futuristic, a hint of fantasy maybe... really, it's one of my favorites now.  If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you do.

When the movie was over, my dad smiled.

"Don't you just hate it when I'm right?" he asked, slyly.  "You have to write a blog post about this."

I laughed.  "Maybe I will."

***

Did you enjoy my little tale of what happened on Monday?  I tried to tell it as it happened, but of course things are different from different POV's.

My dad would want me to 'admit' that the moral of the story is: parents are always right.  But of course, both he and I know they're not.  Sorry dad.  But thanks for taking us to the movie :)

Do you guys like to surprise your kids?  Did your parents surprise you with fun things when you were kids?  Tell me about it!


--Jess

P.S.
At least my dad was wrong about working out last night... he said that would be fun and make us feel better....