Well maybe it's not really a crime, but my sister-in-law and I pulled off the best surprise for one of my brothers last year. He had absolutely no clue, and we managed to keep it a secret for about 5 months. It was challenging, but the result was priceless, as displayed on my brother's face.
At the beginning of last year, my sister-in-law Lien asked me what I thought of surprising my brother Zaldy with a trip to the 2012 Indianapolis 500 race. This race occurs on Memorial Day weekend every year. It was on our bucket list, we knew we would go one year, and my brother's 50th birthday year of 2012 made sense. So I told her that we should just book the flights and worry about the details later.
She asked others if they were interested in going. The only other people who were able to go were his close friend Glen and Glen's sister Sharon. They live in Los Angeles. I don't remember if it was a coincidence that we booked flights which had a stopover in Los Angeles, but this played well into our surprise for him.
Lien made reservations at a hotel in Downtown Indianapolis, with Lucas Oil Stadium right behind the hotel. The stadium is where the Indianapolis Colts play. She also purchased the tickets to the race, with a parking pass, and booked an SUV rental. All that was left to do was to figure out how to surprise him with the trip. I wanted to surprise him all the way to the counter at the airport. We had about 4 months left to think about it and decide. The one scenario I could think of to get him to the airport in the first place was to pretend I was traveling to Indianapolis for a reason.
The opportunity to plant seeds in Zaldy's head came along when I remembered that I purchased raffle tickets for a raffle that would happen at the TNBA bowling league national annual tournament. The TNBA was hosting it in Indianapolis in 2012 Memorial Day weekend. What another coincidence! I showed my brother the tickets that had the date on them and told him I bought them because I was bowling in the tournament and that it would be my first time to travel for one.
Life went on...
Fast forward to the week before our travel date. I called Zaldy and asked him if he could take me to SFO so that I could travel to Indianapolis to attend the bowling tournament. Of course he knew that I was telling the truth about the bowling tournament in Indianapolis, but he didn't know that I lied to him about having asked everyone else, including my son CJ, for a ride. Being the great brother that he is, he immediately said he could take me to the airport.
Lien asked their kids Naomi and Junior and Naomi's husband James to help with the surprise. We needed all of them to be at the airport to bring their luggage, to record the reaction, and to take the car home.
On the night before the trip, I worked until 1:00 a.m. in preparation for the financing with Google Ventures. I had to pack some files with me. I stayed out until about 2:00 a.m. to eat at Pho Mai because I had not eaten most of the day and I was starving. When I got home, I crashed, excited about the trip and excited about the then secret deal with Google Ventures.
When I woke up, I had to do some more work and do some chores. I went to the Great Mall to get something to eat. I procrastinated until almost the very last minute to pack. I remember receiving the phone call from Lien that they were on their way, and I started to panic. I decided just to throw stuff into my suitcase and worry about anything missing later. After all, things can always be purchased at the local stores if you forget to pack it.
When Lien and Zaldy arrived, they parked their car in the garage and came in for a bit. The first thing my brother asked me was why my bowling bags were still in the garage. Whoops! I quickly responded with something I had heard before. "I FedExed my balls to the hotel already. It's typical to do that." Thank goodness he believed me.
On our way up to SFO, Lien and I played it cool. I was in the back seat, texting my other brother Tom to help. He works at SFO, and he helped with the surprise by playing his role. I had talked to him earlier to expect a text from me, which would be the signal for him to call me.
At one point, Zaldy made a comment that made me and Lien look at each other and smile. "Wouldn't it be nice if I could get on the plane with Yol and go to the Indy 500? She could bowl and I could go watch the race." Lien responded, "Yeah right." I chuckled quietly.
We planted another seed in Zaldy's head. Lien and I got on the subject of Tom, and we talked about the pictures that Tom had posted recently on Facebook. Since Zaldy is not on Facebook, he did not know about the pictures we were talking about. "Did you see Tom's pictures? Who is that girl with him?" "I don't know. He seems to be keeping her a secret." We went on for a few minutes. This helped with the call I was expecting from Tom.
The phone rang. I announced to Lien and Zaldy that it was Tom calling. It was really a one-sided conversation. "Hi Tom! What's going on? You're at work? Oh, you want us to stop in for a quick bite? You also want us to meet someone? Hold on. Hey guys, do you have time to stop into the airport and meet up with Tom? He wants us to meet someone." Being the great brother that Zaldy is, he immediately said yes. Ha. Getting him into the airport was easier than I thought.
After we parked at short-term, we headed to the Delta counter, where I told them that Tom would meet us. When we arrived, Zaldy walked ahead of us, and I had a chance to ask Lien where the kids were. She said she didn't know and was trying to get a hold of them. Just then I noticed that Zaldy was looking right at Junior, who was making a terrible attempt to hide. Junior had his camera with him. Zaldy walked slowly with his eyes fixed on Junior, as he could not figure out what his son was doing there. Junior said, "Hi Dad! I'm going to Hawaii!"
Junior was an unexpected face to him. He could not compute this. Then he spotted Naomi and James, who were also making a terrible attempt at hiding. They tried to hide behind a plant - A PLANT. "Hi Dad! We're going to Vegas!" My brother was confused further. He could not understand why his kids were there. He certainly looked dumbfounded.
I decided to say my part. "Hey Zald. Do you know why I am going to Indianapolis? I am not going there to bowl. Do you know what else is going on there? Of course you do. The Indy 500! I am going to the Indy 500! And I have a ticket and boarding pass for you. Do you want to come along?"
Zaldy was speechless. Before he could even say anything, Lien jumped in. "What's this about? What? Did you know about this Zald? How come I don't know anything about this? You can't go to Indianapolis. What is going on?"
He really really looked confused then. We all started to laugh. "Surprise!" we said. Zaldy could not understand it. He was lost and didn't know what to say. "We're going to the Indy 500 dummy. Lien is too."
Then he finally spoke up. "But I didn't pack anything." That's when the kids brought around the luggage. Ahhh, it finally sunk in. Or did it? The surprise wasn't over.
After thanking the kids and saying goodbye, we went to the gate. Zaldy kept shaking his head in disbelief.
Our stopover at LAX was the second part of the surprise. When we got there, we went to eat at McDonald's. Zaldy called Glen and told him about the surprise and that we were going to the Indy 500. Glen played along and listened. After a couple of minutes, Glen told Zaldy that he had to go because he was going to dinner with Sharon. He told Zaldy that he would call him back.
As we sat at the gate to wait for our flight, Glen called Zaldy back. He was on the phone with Glen when Sharon approached. Zaldy looked at Sharon and again could not compute seeing her unexpected face. Then Glen appeared. Zaldy could not believe that this was a further surprise. After laughing and seeing him get over the shock, we told him the entire story. The surprise was complete.
We went off to Indianapolis and had a great time, even though I missed kissing the bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The trip itself can be an entire blog. I missed out on the bricks because I had to take some time off from vacation to run payroll and work on the Google deal. During the rest of 2012, I learned from Lien that my brother was really emotionally touched by what we had done. I asked him if he would be able to surprise Lien on her 50th in the same manner or would be able to top it. He said, "No way." Lien and I had pulled off the crime of the century...
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