LDR Anniversary SURPRISE!!!

I was expecting a non-eventful 7th year anniversary. It was our second long distance relationship anniversary. Dodong, my date, is 6,914 km away and the least we could do to celebrate the occasion is to greet each other through SMS, email, chat or a phone call.  We actually got to chat that morning before I left for work. So in short, we got to exchange greetings already, which was perfectly ok. I was giddy happy, of course, 7-years of being together is still W-O-W!

I then went to work expecting the usual work day. Rode to work with my "K" carpool mate, long-time community friend and officemate. Read and replied to emails. Nothing special. But I was dead wrong. It was one of the MOST SPECIAL days of my coupled life…

1st Suprise: Chicharong Brownies

While I was going about work that morning, "K" lugging her laptop came to me in my area saying "Huy may ipapakinig ako syo…" Of course, I said "Go" thinking that it was a music peg she needed for one of the presentations.

Lo and behold, it was not a song but a video of Dodong!!! OMG! I was so touched I cried…on my desk.

If you must know, Dodong is not at all a thoughtful nor a creative gift giver. He would always ask me: "What do you want?" So I was surprised!!!!

It was his video greeting for me. He said he remembered me telling him a story of how I loved chicharong bulaklak when I was young and actually consumed half a kilo of it!  I asked my dad to buy me half-a-kilo of chicharon bulaklak to be my reward if I won my swimming competition. I obviously won since I ate the whole half kilo! Hehehe.

So he was giving me 7-pouches of chicharong bulaklak to represent each of the 7 years together. And yes, he says have mercy on my heart's cholesterol so I have to share the chicharon. Hehehe!

Unfortunately, "K" wasn't able to find chicharon bulaklak that would keep fresh that morning. So she instead bought a box of brownies from Goldilock's. Which are so moist and yummy by the way! In fairness!

Ang chicharong bulaklak na naging brownies!

2nd surprise: My FIRST EVER flowers from Dodong

And so I continued working working working…Honestly I tried working since I was just so high from the morning's suprise. Little did I know that a phone call would give me another surprise!

Our receptionist called me to say "Ms. Inday you have flowers from Ms. Dodong." I said "HUH?!? Flowers? Sigurado kang ako yan?" I put down the phone and went out to the office lobby.

Lo and behold, it was not just one bouquet of flowers, but SEVEN yes SEVEN bouquets of Yellow Gerberas!!!

I have been shamelessly plugging to Dodong that these were my favorite flowers in the hope that one day, someday he would give me flowers.His retort would always be: "Bakit makakain mo ba ang flowers?!?" which, obviously, silences the usually madaldal me. Hehehe!

Along with the SEVEN bouquets of flowers came another round of video messages c/o "K".  He said in the video that he sent 7-dozen Yellow Gerberas to symbolize our 7-years together. 12 months in a year equals a dozen flowers. So 7-dozen flowers equals 7-years And I thought that Dodong was not at all thoughtful and creative at gift giving huh?

Bouquet #1

Bouquet #2

Bouquet #3

Bouquet #4

Bouquet #5

Bouquet #6

Bouquet #7

Until press time, I still am in a state of disbelief that this actually happened. I am beyond pleasantly surprised. I was so giddy happy kilig that I could not function efficiently at work. Sowee! I was just in Cloud-9…SIGH.

1,2,3,4,5,6...7!!!

See what wonders being away can do? It really does push the envelope in gift giving! It did wonders for me. Imagine, the FIRST TIME in seven years!!!

How about you: What is the best surprise given to you by your better half on your long distance anniversary?

Love the distance,

Inday I. Nagintay

P.S. It was also the first time that Dodong has upstaged me in creative gift giving. hehehe! I know I'm a bit competitive. My gift was a photo compilation / album of the text messages he sent me. It reached about a 100+ text messages.