The Queen's Rambles

This is the face of one happy, goofy, almost four boy. And he’s silly, to boot. Not that any of you ever would have guessed that about him.

Our day almost turned into a disaster on two fronts. In the end it was ok, but by no means perfect.

We woke up to rain. Rain rain and more rain. Lots of rain. I was obsessively checking the weather and it kept saying the rain would be done by noon, but even so I was worried that the park would be soaked and it would be miserable.

Tra la!

Around noon the sun came up and the weather ended up being perfect. The park wasn’t wet at all, and it was not too hot or too cold. It was too windy, so I didn’t even take the fifteen balloons out of their giant garbage bag. They attacked my guests like a giant amoeba and it was just sort of embarrassing. I wanted to send each kid home with a balloon because I know that thrills the kids, but I was scared that if I opened up the package, the balloons would be long gone before I could tie them to something.

Disaster one: weather. Solved.

Disaster two: overcrowded park. Not solved.

I figured that this late in the year I didn’t really need to book a pavilion for a party. Since it was so rainy, I figured we’d get to the park and have the whole place to ourselves.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I got there a half hour before the party and was greeted by the sight of a giant bounce house. Some company was having a picnic and had done the right things by reserving the two main pavilions. Luckily I knew about a third pavilion down in the woods, but it was not handy or fun or conducive to the kids playing on the playground while the adults lazed around.

At that point I had no choice but to take that pavilion and work with it. About five minutes after I started taping up decorations, another lady came down and wanted to know if I was using the pavilion.

Uh.

That would be why there are balloons and stars and tablecloths and all manner of other party shit around.

She had also planned a party but hadn’t booked a pavilion. Her party was supposed to start an hour after my party. I was planning on doing the main party stuff right away, then letting the kids play so I told her she could have a table and that we would be wrapping up around the time her guests started arriving.

She was very grateful and I was very frazzled. I know I could have told her no, but that would have been pretty shitty. We were out of there by 3 anyway and it all worked out. We didn’t want to leave our stuff down in the hidden pavilion anyway, so it was good to just clean up and head up to the main playground.

A little bit later her friend arrived and tried to kick me out. I was not pleased.

She tried to tell me that she had the pavilion reserved and I had to leave, but there was no reserved sign. She even called the rec department and they told her they didn’t have her booked. I don’t know what happened, but I was just very lucky that we had a spot for the party.

Mike and Erik finally arrived and managed to find me. I put Mike in charge of locating our guests and pointing them to the hidden pavilion. He found most of them. Our neighbors showed up over an hour late, then were not happy that they missed all the fun. Erik adores their six year old son but I think he’s a brat. He had a total meltdown because he missed the pinata and all the candy.

He wanted a “return gift” but I had no idea what he meant. I finally figured out he meant a goodie bag, but I didn’t give out goodie bags. The kids filled their loot bags from the pinata and our other games and that was that. Mike went and found Erik’s bag and gave them some candy, but apparently chocolate isn’t “real candy” so he was still pissed.

When we got home I tried to make it up to him by taking down a fake goodie bag with fruit snacks and stickers. I also took down some cake, balloons and other party favors. I did feel bad that they couldn’t find us or contact us, but I know Mike was up on the playground looking for them for at least a half hour so it wasn’t totally my fault. They were surprised we started the party on time because I guess in their culture they do things at a much slower pace. I had seven three year olds waiting for party games and cake! I couldn’t hold off any longer.

I was fairly pissed about the company picnic, mainly because they had a huge bounce house right next to the playground but only kids with company wristbands were allowed inside. I think it is extremely rude to host a private event on a public space if you are not going to share something like a huge bounce house. There’s another park in the area that would have been much more appropriate for their party. It has lots of pavilions kind of out in a field, so they could have set up there and not had a GIANT TEMPTING HOUSE OF FUN that we weren’t allowed to use. I feel like writing a letter to the rec department about it. They were doing other rude things too, just basically acting like the whole park was their private area when that is simply not the case. You rent the pavilions, not the whole park. My friend went into the bathroom and said they had electronic crap all over the bathroom, including all over the changing table so if someone needed to change a diaper there wouldn’t have been any place to do it. Rude!

Oh well.

In the end it was all fine and most of the kids had a good time. We played “Houston Says” which is very similar to Simon Says, if you can imagine. We also did a take on the British Pass the Parcel, only called it Pass the Planet. I wrapped 11 layers of little party favors and candy. They would pass the planet and whoever was holding it when the music stopped would get to unwrap a layer and keep whatever fell out.

Then, of course, there was the alien pinata that we got to beat all to hell. I let the kids all go through the line twice with four whacks each, but they had barely made a dent. They were getting anxious and cranky, so I took a turn. I sort of forget how strong I am sometimes. I’m sure any adult could have whacked it open in one blow, but most adults might have been a little more careful about it. I decapitated that nasty ol’ alien in one swift blow to the head.

The cake was also a semi-success. The local Safeway decorators are pretty Wrecktastic, but I don’t think any of the local grocery store bakeries are any better. I had them do the background to their Star Trek cake, but leave the USS Enterprise off. I added little plastic astronauts and space debris. Luckily I had just enough for each kid to take one home. We were also lucky that the girls didn’t care that they got crappy little weird space things instead of cool astronauts or shuttles.

Despite some setbacks, I think it was a mostly successful party. Erik loved it and that’s what counts, right?

He got a Razor scooter for his birthday, so he thinks he’s pretty hot stuff. I need to make him wear his knee pads, I think. His poor legs are all bruised up. I can’t wait to hear what the peds say about that at his four year well check next week.

On a totally different note, I have more information about my dad. He is not on his deathbed. My sister and mom have been very upset, but it was mainly because no one was telling them anything and his room is just down the hall from where my grandma died. I can imagine it would be very hard to go back in there after you watched your mom/grandma die just two months ago.

The doctors say his heart is damaged, but he doesn’t have to die. It’s basically up to him. They can send him home and he might live a bit longer if he loses weight and quits drinking. If he goes home and starts drinking again, he’ll land right back in the hospital and death will come sooner rather than later.

His response?

“They can’t tell me what to do.”

And that, my friends, is why I can’t bring myself to worry. Of course I’m worried, but I can’t stew over it. It’s in his hands and he has to decide what he wants to do. I guess he had a different doctor today and she really gave it to him straight. He didn’t like her. Imagine that.

I also have a major disconnect since I am not there and can’t see what it happening. It is easy to live in la-la denial land. I was seriously thinking about going back. I found some pretty decently priced tickets for next week, but I’m just not sure. I don’t think anything is going to happen right now unless he gets pneumonia. If he gets pneumonia then I’ll re-evaluate the situation.