You may have seen my announcement a few days ago about my brother becoming the first person in our family to graduate from college. The graduation itself may have been pretty boring, but afterward is when the real celebration began.
My mom and brother's fiancé Kristian had worked together to plan a surprise party for my brother. Their plan was to rent out the recently updated and extremely nice party room at the apartment complex that they lived in for several years upon first moving to Lancaster. It also happens to be where Kristian works, so it just made sense to do it there.
The plan was to have food & drinks and then enjoy the company of some close family and friends. Kristian even made an amazing slideshow that played on the big screen tv for the whole party. It was a celebration of the best part of my brother Chez's life.
Not only was the party itself a surprise, but so were many of the guests. My brother's longtime best friend Nathan that still lives here where I am in WV took off of work just to make the 6.5-hour trip up there. Not many people would be willing to do that. Then Kristian's dad also did the same. Chez was shocked to see both.
After keeping this whole thing a mystery for a few months, it was finally time to take Chez to where we were going. We blindfolded him and then drove from the graduation to where the party would be. He's smart like me and despite being blind, he began to understand where we were going due to the fact that he had made the turns and driven this same path a million times. Although he knew where we were going, he still didn't know who was going to be there.
As we arrived his friend Nathan was getting out of his truck at the exact same time. We all stayed silent as he snuck inside and waited for us to bring the freshly graduated man Chez into the building. Of course, my brother was shocked to see his best bud and I was very happy for them to get to reunite for an evening of fun together.
My mom killed it with the food. She got an insane amount of stuff from this place called Mission BBQ. It was delicious and we ate on it for several days following the party because we just had so much.
Then she also purchased a custom cake that cost several hundred dollars. Not only was it gorgeous, but it was one of the most tasty cakes that I have ever tasted in my entire life. It was a lemon cake with raspberry filling. I must have had 7 or 8 pieces of that thing during this trip. It was just so irresistible no matter how bad the sugar overdose is for me.
After the party, we all dipped and regrouped at Chez's favorite local bar called Quip's. It is a chill little spot with an English vibe of sorts. A 19th-century building houses this tavern serving British & American pub grub & a long beer list. I was totally exhausted as I'm used to going to bed no later than midnight. We ended up staying until close which means we didn't get home until after 3 am. Then everyone stayed up even longer after that. I didn't quite make it as late. Thankfully though, we were able to walk home from Quip's and didn't have to risk drinking and driving.
Although I did not drink a large amount like everyone else, I still woke up feeling like absolute shit. I mainly blame this on the fact that I stayed up so late and then somehow still managed to wake up at my normal time of 7 or 8. It was a rough night, but it sure was worth it. My brother deserved that celebration and I'm thankful that my mom and Kristian made it happen.