Wednesday, May 30, 2012

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....

17 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm terrible with surprises. Don't even mind spoilers because I stop panicking and slow down to enjoy the story. Ridiculous, right? At least I've stopped reading the endings first.
Your surprise was awesome!! And I loved the way you told it...your dad was right--about posting this to your blog. ;)

Christie Wright Wild said...

That was pretty good! My parents did fun stuff with/for us when I was younger, but it was never as an early morning surprise. We always knew about it. Come to think of it, I don't do surprise activities for my kids either. I always like to let them know ahead of time (if it's planned).

Skye said...

Haha I loved Avengers. Thought it was awesome! :D
Your parents sounds great. Nice writing..As usual :P
- Skye

Krista McLaughlin said...

Parents can be right sometimes, thought they can also be painfully wrong at times too. I loved Avengers - great movie! I was actually gonna post a photo of them on my blog today, ironic. :)

Jess said...

Sarah~ I always used to read the endings of stories! I got too anxious about how it would end, haha :)

Christie~ I agree, I usually like to know what's planned instead of having to be in suspense all day!

Skye & Krista~ Thanks for stopping by! And yes, the Avengers rocked. Definitely one of my favorites now. Glad you guys enjoyed it, too :)

Wendy Tyler Ryan said...

Cool post Jessica, my parents weren't that exciting!

Jaime Morrow said...

Pretty cool parents, and a pretty cool outing. :)

My dad used to blast bagpipe music when he wanted us to haul our buns out of bed. I think your dad's method is a little kinder. :)

Chuck said...

Dang! I still need to see the Avengers!!! I have been telling myself (and my wife) that we need to see Thor (I've seen she hasn't), Iron Man (1 and 2), The Hulk, (we've already seen Captain America). All these BEFORE we go to the Avengers...on our schedule this could take until it come out on DVD! We have all those movies, but do we really need to see them before The Avengers??? Do we need all this background? I value your opinion on this.

Anonymous said...

Ah! Don't you hate those moments where your family wants to do something, but you want to write? Maybe next time I'll agree to go with them. :) And I totally want to see The Avengers!

Callie Leuck said...

Oh surprises! I never know if they're going to work out or fall flat. I recently pulled a surprise visit on my family (they're in Indiana; I'm in Virginia) that went over well :)

I don't think my parents ever surprised us with trips to the movie theater (although a surprise trip to see The Avengers is a great surprise) but my mom used to randomly leave brand-new books on my bed for me to find when I got home from school. It was basically the best thing ever. Often they were classics I mightn't have read otherwise, or at least probably not until I was older. Sometimes they were classics of fantasy, like The Hobbit or Stardust :) As far as I'm concerned, surprise books are always welcome.

Sharon Bayliss said...

That was a fun story. You definitely had me wanting to know what the big surprise was. :)

Sarah Faulkner said...

Hey Jess! Over at my blog I gave you the Kreativ Blogger Award. When I came over here to tell you about it, I saw that you had already received ti, but no matter. I'm giving it to you again! Check out the details over at my blog. http://inklinedwriters.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-i-havent-posted-and-another-award.html

~Sarah Faulkner

Julie Dao said...

Haha, I love it! Good for you for playing it cool :) I haven't seen the Avengers yet, but I've heard nothing but rave reviews.

Len Lambert said...

I've enjoyed every bit of this story :) I haven't seen the movie yet but I will! :)

Reiko said...

Grandpa loves to surprise family members. That must be where your Dad gets it from! I can just picture the scenes you described. Enjoyed your blog a lot! Love, Grandma

Unknown said...

I loved this. It is nice when what you THINK is going to be a good surprise for your kids actually IS. :)

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