Being at Southgate Coins for almost a half year, I (Nicole) have been able to experience quite a few birthdays! First, there was Crystal’s 25th, then Maya’s 21st, and soon after, came Rusty’s “born-long-ago” bash as well! So driving up to Southgate Coins last Saturday morning, I thought I knew what to expect. But little did I know how the gang at Southgate would only continue to surprise me as the day progressed! Read on to see how my 19th birthday at Southgate Coins was celebrated.
As I walked into the shop, I was the first staff member to arrive, and I was so surprised to see Marie and all the festive decorations that Rusty and Maya had worked so hard to set up the night before. I was thrilled to see pink and purple banners (my favorite colors), silly birthday signs, and best of all, the heart-shaped, HUGE Happy Birthday balloon, with a pink boa around it! It was such a thoughtful and personal touch to complement my rather “girly” and outgoing personality, and I loved every bit of it!
Soon after, Crystal, Cara, and Rusty all arrived, and they all greeted me with such warm-hearted smiles and “Happy Birthday” hellos. It was a great way to start the day, and not to mention, a perfect excuse to take lots of pictures! As usual, Rusty had both cameras on hand and managed to take nice shots of us girls and Marie, with the birthday signs and the massive balloon—which I know was difficult for him to fit in the pictures!
After a busy morning, Maya arrived around 11:45, which prompted another round of picture taking. As the end of the day fast approached, and we began to close the store, Crystal tried to “distract” me. So I tried to play along with as little giggling as possible, but I knew immediately as soon as the birthday music started playing over the store’s speakers, and I heard a symphony of birthday horns, what my sneaky fellow employees and bosses were up to!
The first thing I noticed was my beautiful birthday cake. It was so colorful and had rainbow sprinkles and confetti all over it. Then Marie and the girls bombarded me with presents and Rusty handed me my special birthday-princess hat to put on. The hat made me laugh instantly because it had pink and purple “cheetah” print that read, “ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS.”
Everyone’s gifts were so thoughtful and made me so thankful to be working with a crew like the one at Southgate Coins. Even the birthday cards had a humorous touch to them. The girls (Maya, Cara, and Crystal) got me a Victoria’s Secret gift card and lots of my favorite scented stuff from Bath and Body Works. Then Rusty and Marie gave me a great big beach bag and towel for my many summer trips. They kept bringing out more gifts to surprise me, including a Katherine Heigl DVD, and a box full of goodies, including body cream, lip gloss, eye shadow, a set of makeup brushes, mascara, and a travel-size brush/comb.
I was in such high spirits from all the excitement, since I’d never had a work party like this before! Everyone truly went out of their way to make sure it was a special day for me!
I want to thank you all at Southgate Coins for a truly memorable 19th birthday celebration, which I’ll always remember!
Now here’s Crystal and Maya to share their thoughts on how the day unfolded:
At closing time, Rusty had me (Crystal) distract the birthday girl with the task of checking the timers on our window lighting. The rest of the crew (Marie, Cara, and Maya) snuck into the back with Rusty to put the finishing touches on the party preparations. It was funny too, because Nicole started giving me weird looks, until she ACTUALLY had to start checking the light timers—which she’s never done before. I knew she was suspicious, but she played along anyway.
Then, loud birthday music started playing (the Beatles’ “Birthday”) all over the store, and I told Nicole, “you know what that means.” She, looking slightly embarrassed, wandered into the back, only to be bombarded with noise makers and birthday hats. Rusty had a super special, pink hat with hearts for Nicole to wear.
The cake was already on display, like it usually is for birthdays, and it looked very sweet, with its vanilla center and its flowery butter-cream frosting. There were even gobs of small confetti candies decorating the sides. All in all, it was a sight to behold.
Picture taking was next, and that was really interesting: all of us trying to squeeze together to get into the pictures, not to mention the assortment of signs and the big heart-shaped birthday balloon with its pink boa we were also trying to fit in. (who knew that Rusty had such great taste in balloons!)
After pictures, Nicole started opening her presents. Maya, being our resident “sneaky” girl, came up with some great ideas for what us girls could get for Nicole. I’ll let Maya tell you about that.
Just like for every birthday at Southgate Coins (except mine), I (Maya) try to select the perfect gifts. For Nicole, I realized that she was the perfect “girly-girl,” so I stealthily started asking her seemingly random questions during the weeks preceding her birthday
My main goal was to find out what kind of scents she enjoyed, so I could get her a set of aromatic lotions, body scrubs, and sprays. It turned out that Nicole loves Warm Vanilla Sugar scent, and that Bath and Body Works just happened to have gift sets prepared with that very fragrance. I ran my plan by the other girls (Cara and Crystal) and they agreed that this particular birthday celebration should be very “girly.”
When Nicole finally opened the gifts us girls gave her, she seemed to be delighted, and she even remembered me asking my detective questions weeks before.
I guess it turns out that I'm a pretty sly detective after all, because the end result was that we had an overjoyed and surprised 19-year-old girl in our midst.
Happy birthday, Nicole. I hope that you enjoyed your first Southgate birthday celebration where you were the princess for a day!