I choose hot air ballooning kind of on a whim a couple of weeks before my birthday.
The guy on the phone from the adventure place I googled was so nice. And I just thought, “Yep. Okay, this is the thing.”
[Note, though: Obviously I should’ve checked out a couple of places, and I should’ve checked groupon. I’m usually really good about that kind of stuff. But I think I was just distracted by a lot going on at work or blah blah blah excuses. So I found a place, liked the place, and landed on it. (And I guess there is something to be said for that too – just finding something good and going with it when it’s not a life-altering decision. Anyway, moving on….]
I hosted a facial party at my apartment a week or two before my birthday (to help out a friend of mine who’s trying to sell skincare products). When we were talking about what I was gonna do for my birthday and I said hot air ballooning, one of my good friends said, “I’ve always wanted to do that!” So I said, “come with me!” He said, “but wait, is this really a for real invitation? Because I will!” And I’m all, “of course!!!” (Not that you need the little play-by-plays, but you just got ’em.)
So he called the place and signed up with me. This is one way you know that someone is really your friend. He picked me up from work (I work nights now) at 2:30am! That’s right. At 2:30 in the morning, he picked me up so we could go down to Temecula for a sunrise balloon ride.
The car ride was super fun, because for one thing Alex is super fun, adventurous, and interesting. And for another, I learned that we have so much in common! So often something that one of us said was met by the other one with a “ME TOO!”
For instance, we both adore Olive Garden (even though soooo many people think it’s “too fast food chain-y” or whatever :-p) So, I felt like I really found a long-lost friend or something when he said he loved Olive Garden.
We got down to Temecula early since there wasn’t any traffic at that time of morning. There didn’t seem to be much to do (as far as we could tell) at 4 something in the morning. So we parked in the parking lot of the winery where we were going, leaned our seats back, and looked out at the stars through his sunroof (moonroof, since it’s nighttime?)
I was like “I’m gonna take a picture of us to help document the day.” In the first picture, my head looked huge (partially because I have a huge head). Then he said, “Well, I’ll lean forward so mine will look bigger, making yours look smaller.”
Can you even believe the kind of amazing friendship he showed in that moment? Sacrificing the good angle so the birthday girl can have a normal-sized-looking head? That is kindness right there!
And this is where I’ll pick up next time.