By Latifa Al Khemeiri
ABU DHABI – One early February evening, a group of friends and I were attending a surprise birthday party.
Surprise birthday parties are always more fun than regular birthday parties because people are twice as excited and everybody ends up having a better time than they thought they would.
It wouldn’t be a surprise birthday party, with a total of 70 guests, without something outrageous happening. The party took place outdoors, in the backyard of the birthday girl’s best friend’s house.
After the birthday girl had arrived and we had done our part by successfully surprising her, everything started to get just slightly crazier. On top of the guests that had already been there, more people started showing up, half of whom I had never met before. The party was a blast; there was good food, good music, and great company surrounding a swimming pool that glowed with all the colors of the rainbow.
I was standing by the chocolate fountain eating strawberries on a stick (with no chocolate on them – which completely beats the purpose of a chocolate fountain) when all of a sudden I was lifted off the ground. It was the birthday girl’s sister, and she thought it would be funny to throw people into the swimming pool. The next thing I knew I was gasping for air as I swam to the edge of the pool where another guest was being tossed. I would’ve probably thought it was funny had it not been wintertime and had I not been drowning in relatively frigid (by Abu Dhabi’s standards) water.
The second I got myself out of the water, I realized that my mobile phone, a Blackberry, was in the back pocket of my jeans. I reached for it and quickly pulled it out to discover that it had been completely soaked. Annoyed, I went into the house where the birthday girl brought a hair-dryer and helped me dry my phone. I appreciated her sympathy; however, that did not get my phone to work again.
I left the party irritated with my completely damaged and inoperative phone. That’s when my brother, who was driving me home, suggested that I put it in a bowl of uncooked rice. He said it would absorb all the water from the phone, and I would be back in business.
I followed through with his suggestion and left the phone in a bowl of rice for two days straight. When it was finally time to take it out, the screen lit up as I turned on the phone. I felt relieved at having my phone work again because I had a year’s worth of memories on that thing.
After that traumatic experience, I’ve learned to stay away from swimming pools — of course, with the exception of pool parties.
This story was originally published on Feb. 3, 2015. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 24, 2020.
