Surprise!

I remember a time, I think it was in 2004, when my second wife was going to give me a surprise birthday party. She told me in advance, so that I wouldn't be too surprised. She invited a number of people, her brothers and sisters, but I think the whole point was to get her daughters to come from Portland from Atlanta and New York. As it turned out, the daughters could not come, and so my wife cancelled the surprise party. It was the only surprise party that I ever almost had. By the time my next birthday had rolled around, we had divorced, but this had nothing to do with the surprise party that never happened. Nor was the divorce itself much of a surprise. It had been happening for quite some time.