A Birthday Surprise for A Friend

“..winter spring summer or fall, all youhave to do is call
And I’ll be there yes I will, you’ve got a friend ”

Tanggal 8 Januari yang lalau adalah hari ulang tahun seorang sahabat dekat saya, namanya Hesria Meti Nurjanah (dikenal dengan berbagai panggilan: riri, yii, nyii, mba menur), I personally sometimes call her yii or sist.. Ini pertama kalinya dia merayakan ulang tahun jauh dari keluarga,yang membuatnya sangat sedih setiap kali teringat hal itu.

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05/01/2010
[teman2,ini rani.. teman kita riri tgl 8 nanti ultah kan, nah pengen ngasih scrapbook yang isinya foto + ucapan slmt ultah dr temen2nya..nah krn itu, minta bantuan tmn2 bwt ngirim foto dengan pose sekreatif mungkin yg intinya ada ucapan slmt ultah (ex:pose bawa spanduk happy bday, megang kue tart, atw cukup kertas yg bertuliskan happy bday) + ucapanny skalian…tolng dikirim via email ke ramadhani.ardiansyah@gmail.com atw via mms k 081932642***. Thnx a lot friends!]
Message sent
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That was a text message that I sent to our friends. From that day, the “scrapbook project” started. Not only from far-away friends, I also collect photos and greetings from friends around us, in my office and hers as well, and also from her friends that aren’t mine yet. That was pretty tough, because most of them kept postponing to send the pictures and greetings.
Karena banyak yang tidak bisa memenuhi deadline pengumpulan foto, akhirnya saya harus mencetak secara bertahap agar scrapbook-nya tetap bisa dikerjakan. Terima kasih banyak untuk Mas Rifky dan Mas Binuko yang mengantarkan saya mencetak foto-foto dan membeli bahan-bahan untuk membuat scrapbook. Anyway the book was supposed to be a surprise present but apparently one of the friend who thought I already give the scrapbook to her mention about that. So it was no longer become a surprise present.

Percakapan mereka (seperti yang diceritakan ke saya) kurang lebih seperti ini :
Friend: Happy birthday ya rii!
Riri. : Iya makasiiiih…
Friend: Oh iya, gimana scrapbook-nya?bagus?
Riri. : …………..
Hmmm, kayaknya yang itu belum sampe ke gue deh


Anyway, it took quite a while to finish the book, but with lots of help, especially from Mbak Ria and Mbak Tri in the office (yes people, you read it right,we do it in the office. Sampai-sampai salah satu atasan saya sambil bercanda berkomentar: ”untung riri ulang tahun cuma setahun sekali, coba kalo tiap bulan, bisa-bisa nanti di Buku Produksi kalian isinya membuat scrapbook terus”).
Sepulang kantor dan selama di kosan saya juga terbantu dengan kehadiran Putri Melati a.k.a. Pumelita, sahabat saya yang satu ini membantu dalam menyelesaikan dan memberikan sentuhan akhir sebelum scrapbooknya diserahkan.

Not only the scrapbook thingy, i also initiated a surprise party for her, so even when she’s not with her family, she can celebrate it with all of us here. Just to show that she also have another “family”.

Dengan bantuan Bang Aulia, kami berhasil menemukan tempat yang lumayan “cozy and personal” untuk surprise party-nya. There were 16 of us there, consisting of friends from her office, my office and Pumelita. Mas Bangun, one of our friend was assigned to keep Riri away and later take her to the spot, meanwhile the rest of us waited there. We requested live music from the café, prepared cake and 23 candles. Right after they got into the parking lot, we dimmed the lights and prepared the candles. We stood side by side, surrounding the table and each of us was holding 1 or 2 candles.

Begitu Riri dan Mas Bangun datang dan menuju ke lantai 2 kafe tempat kami menyiapkan surprise party, musiknya dimainkan dan kami semua bernyanyi, Riri lumayan kaget karena tidak menyangka saya dan teman-teman lain lah yang ada di sana. Kemudian dia berkeliling meniup satu persatu lilin yang kami pegang, memotong kue ulang tahun dan menyuapi kami semua satu per satu. Setelah itu acara dipenuhi dengan makan-ngobrol-foto serta beberapa sumbangan lagu.

Somehow with all the obstacle, we managed to make this come true. Its good to know that I can do things like this for my best friend and to know our other friends are also care enough to help with the scrapbook and the surprise party, especially because I don’t want to see her sad on her birthday. After all, we say happy birthday, so basically we should be happy when birthday comes..

Finally the scrapbook is given the day after her birthday, on our “girls nite out” dinner the day after the birthday. Again, a bunch of thanks to everyone that participated.

Last, Happy Birthday to my sister, Hesria “Yii” Menur..
Hope you will always have great and blessed life ahead..