Surprise!

I knew that Zach had been planning a belated-birthday surprise because, well, he told me so.

He also told me a couple of weeks ago that I needed to pack a bag, and that I should pack as if we were going to spend a quiet weekend hanging out at our place in Phoenicia—although we were decidedly not going to Phoenicia.

I studiously avoided thinking about the mystery trip, not wanting to spoil the surprise.

So last Thursday, when one of my colleagues asked me to come to his office to check in about a few things, I had no idea that it was a pretext.

Nor was I suspicious when, in the midst of our meeting, he received a text message that prompted him to apologize and ask whether we could reconvene a little later on.

I just walked back down the hall to my own office, pausing only slightly when I saw that my office door—which I had left open—was shut.

Here's the photo my colleague somehow snapped of me being completely surprised:


That's Zach sitting in my chair, with his feet on my desk, wearing shades and a brand-new ski jacket, poised to whisk me off to Park City, Utah, for the opening weekend of the 25th-anniversary Sundance Film Festival. Woo-hoo!!