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It's Surprise Time!
Oh oh oh it's Surprise Time! It's Surprise Time! With good-ie-ies for YOU!
Surprise Time is a song I came up with when I was 12, the silly summer my sister, best friend and I shared a guest bedroom in my grandparent's Western North Carolina vacation home.
The song was accompanied by a ritual: the recipient had to close their eyes. The singer (we went on to take turns), just back from the kitchen, would deposit food into the recepient's outstretched palm. Often, it was something good: a small piece of cheese, a cookie, maybe even a brownie edge. However, depending on the fates, it might be a slimy pat of butter, a saucy meatball, or a Milkbone.
My sister may have helped create Suprise Time. Decades later, she wouldn't remember or care. I usually remember everything. I care about everything.
In the past week, the grownup version of Surprise Time has brought me a rancid square of tofu, a juicy Medjool date that turned out to be a cockroach with twitchy antennae, a handful of lard, and a single boiled-until-yellow brussel sprout.
Nevertheless, I'll enter this coming week with my palm outstretched. Every day is Surprise Time. Why not anticipate something delicious?
Surprise Time is a song I came up with when I was 12, the silly summer my sister, best friend and I shared a guest bedroom in my grandparent's Western North Carolina vacation home.
The song was accompanied by a ritual: the recipient had to close their eyes. The singer (we went on to take turns), just back from the kitchen, would deposit food into the recepient's outstretched palm. Often, it was something good: a small piece of cheese, a cookie, maybe even a brownie edge. However, depending on the fates, it might be a slimy pat of butter, a saucy meatball, or a Milkbone.
My sister may have helped create Suprise Time. Decades later, she wouldn't remember or care. I usually remember everything. I care about everything.
In the past week, the grownup version of Surprise Time has brought me a rancid square of tofu, a juicy Medjool date that turned out to be a cockroach with twitchy antennae, a handful of lard, and a single boiled-until-yellow brussel sprout.
Nevertheless, I'll enter this coming week with my palm outstretched. Every day is Surprise Time. Why not anticipate something delicious?
Published 14th Aug 2022
Author's Note
Who in my life today would do Surprise Time with me? I need to know.
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