Lambs, I got to do one of my favorite things in the world today — surprise someone! I had to be hush hush about it here on the blog because she’s a daily reader but, if you’ll remember, my darling friend from college — Cara — got on a plane very late last night to come back to the United States after spending nearly a year volunteering at an orphanage in Ecuador.

From the minute she told me when she was flying home I knew that I wanted to be there to meet her flight but I wasn’t sure if I could juggle things around at work to get there seeing as she was flying into ATL which is a five hour round trip for me. But things worked out perfectly so, when I got off work last night, I threw a change of clothes in my car and hit the road to Atlanta!

Camera disclosure: I would be the fool who left her camera at home in her hurry to get her ba-donk-a-donk to the ATL quickly. Therefore, all pictures will be courtesy of my cellular device which is commonly known as a “cell phone.” You may have heard of them; my, how technology has advanced in this year of our Lord, 2009.

But back to the above picture. Riddle me this: what does it mean when both your overnight bag and your purse are pink? And then your blog — what if it’s pink, too? Does that just mean you’re meant to love pink forever because, if so, I think I would be okay with that obligation.

Sweet former roommate of mine, Katie, offered to let me stay at her new house so that I’d only be about 45 minutes away from the airport. I’ve seen her and the happy husband since they’ve been married, but this was my first time getting to stay in their darling home! The three of us had dinner and then headed back to their house where her husband pulled out a white board and basically helped plan out my and Katie’s life plans and, if you think I’m joking, well, you’ve just never met Katie’s husband before.

Right before I went to bed, I decided to check to see if Cara’s flight was still on schedule to land at 5:50 a.m. It was but, almost as an afterthought, I decided to set my cell phone to track the flight in case it was delayed which turned out to be a very smart idea given the fact that, when my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. this morning, I had a notification letting me know that Cara’s flight was approximately 50 minutes AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.

Would you like to see what time Ms. I-Woke-Up-at-4:30-a.m. was in the car by?

I immediately hit the interstate and began battling an ugly storm whilst my cellular device kept sending me little updates letting me know the plane was arriving more and more ahead of schedule. I honestly started wondering if Delta was trying to play a cruel trick on me: drive all the way to ATL, Amy Beth, and don’t even get to surprise her in the airport because WE MADE THE PLANE LAND EARLY.

I realize it might have been a little odd to think that an international airline is attempting to pull one over on you but you must remember that my reasoning skills aren’t always functioning WHEN IT’S FOUR SOMETHING IN THE MORNING.

I’m happy to report that it was a tie in the war between automobile and plane because, as I pulled into the south terminal parking garage, Delta sent a friendly little text to tell me that the plane had just landed and I was all NICE TRY, DELTA, BUT I BET I’LL GET OUT OF MY CAR BEFORE YOU CAN GET HER OFF THAT PLANE AND THEREFORE I WIN.

But then I started worrying that she would somehow get through customs before I could get to the international arrival area and therefore I began to scurry through the parking garage which is when I slipped and fell flat on my face and by “fell on my face” I mean my face was on the ground.

It hurt. It hurt real bad. And I’m 87% sure that Delta was somehow involved.

Knock me down if you want, Delta, but I’m gonna get right back up and then I’m gonna send you a friendly little text letting you know that I got up off the ground AHEAD OF SCHEDULE, HOW YOU LIKE THAT, DELTA?

I made it to the arrivals area, limping, where I proceeded to have one of the strangest conversations of my life but I will tell you about that tomorrow because I have more important things to tell you about right now including the moment that Cara came up the escalator and started crying when she saw her mom and then she saw me and her mouth dropped open and I went RUNNING towards her but luckily managed to stop myself because there was a wee bit of airport security there and I was sure — SURE — that Delta had somebody waiting there hoping I’d go past the red line so they could cart me off to jail where I would stay until someone bailed me out at which point I’d be given my cell phone back only to see that Delta had sent me a friendly little text saying “Hope you got out of jail AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.”

You will be pleased to know I restrained myself behind the red line.

And if this is not the most precious thing ever — Cara was so surprised that, instead of continuing to come towards us, she just stood there on the other side, staring, while I’m literally bouncing up and down — LITERALLY BOUNCING UP AND DOWN — yelling “come across the red line because we’re not allowed to! Come across the red line!”

If you were in the arrivals area of the ATL airport this morning and had to witness my bouncing whilst begging for someone to cross the red security line, I apologize.

She crossed the red line and she’s all “YOU’RE HERE!” and I’m all “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE FINALLY HOME!” and her poor mama is not even getting to hug her ’cause we’re too busy bouncing together because, whilst we have spent more time talking over Skype these past 11 months than I could even begin to count, it is just not the same as real life hugging and bouncing and red-line shouting.

And would you like to know what we did after getting her luggage? WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW?

That’s right — we went and had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, just like we used to do when we felt like skipping our 7:45 a.m. Media Law class in favor of some biscuits.

But that only happened once. Or maybe thrice.