Party Talk

Saturday night my brother gave a lovely party for his wife’s 40^th birthday party. He even had it catered with heavy appetizers complete with a server who stayed and cleaned up afterwards plus a bartender for the bar on his porch. (Did I mention we live in Florida where outdoor bars are possible in January?) And then there was the karaoke machine which got heavy use as the liquor flowed and the party really took off. Who knew that partying school teachers could be that, uhm, loud?

In addition to the school teachers from my sister-in-law’s school there was also a contingency of neighbors plus my brother’s “gang” and their wives. (Although not sure if “gang” can apply to a group of golfing middle aged men, some who have been friends from as far back as grade school.) As for family, I am the only one who lives nearby, as one sister is in Boston, and our Mom and another sister is in Texas. Anyway, as I was leaving the party I stopped to say goodbye to my brother. I hadn’t talked to him for an hour or two so it was the first chance we had to speak since the party got into high gear.

I was a little taken aback when the first thing he said to me was “Well, I suppose I’ll be reading about this in Lorena Mae?”

Huh. Until he asked that, it hadn’t occurred to me to tell all in my blog. But once he had mentioned it then the possibilities for extortion danced through my mind. So after getting over the initial shock that he read my blog I then realized what they mean by the power of the press …except I forgot about the power of the family.

The next morning one of my sisters called and since not much else had happened recently I told her a bit about the party. I should have been prepared yet I was still surprised when a few hours later Mom calls me and her opening words were “I talked to your sister who said you went to the party so tell me all about it.” {sigh} What is the point in having a blog with blackmail potential when everybody calls you first?

Besides even though it has been years since any of us were teenagers I still couldn’t shake that code of not telling tales about a sibling. They may now be in their 40s and 50s but some things just don’t change. So Mike and Candy you’re secrets are still safe with me even though it’s killing me not to share a few of the highlights. But instead of telling tales on you I’ll talk about other people!

For a while I spent a very amusing time watching the karaoking teachers, where side bets were being placed for how quickly we good could figure out exactly what song they were supposed to be singing. (Except for Aretha’s Respect we were stumped most of the time!) Anyway, a good looking man was standing next to me watching the spectacle. I asked if he was the husband of one of the caterwauling teachers and he quickly said no, he was a neighbor and his son was a friend of my 10 year old niece. I immediately replied “oh, you must be Bobby’s dad”.

That’s right. My 10 year old niece has a boyfriend. In fact not only does she have a boyfriend but they have had crushes on each other since the second grade. How depressing is that? This neighborhood boy has been in a three year relationship with her - that’s longer than what most adult single men can commit to! And it sure is different than when I was in elementary school where I would have been mortified if a boy liked me. Instead, Bobby’s dad said that when my niece came to one of Bobby’s soccer games, before he had a chance to introduce her to Bobby’s friends they all immediately said “You must be Bobby’s girlfriend.” Wow. He said he was embarrassed but it was no big deal to these kids. No surprise that they are now emailing each other, under the strict supervision of their parents, and have already breezed through the “Do you like me? I like you” phase. In fact, in one of the most recent emails Bobby asked my niece if she wanted to “hook up”? Great. If this is what it’s like in 5^th grade I can only imagine what it will be like when they’re in 10^th grade! But if Bobby looks anything like his dad then my niece has good taste. And of course I already know that Bobby has great taste by having a crush on my niece!

As this was a 40^th birthday party there were lots of bad jokes about getting old. But nothing tops what happened at the last party they had a few years ago. In that party I ended up talking to a neighbor’s college age daughter and her boyfriend. In the course of the conversation we discovered we all had gone to the same high school. The young man added that his dad went there, too, years and years ago. Great. As I was in the second class to graduate from that school then in spite of the kid’s “years and years ago” his dad was probably younger than me! Wrong. It turns out his father was not only in my class but we had dated in high school! Do you have any idea how old you feel when you discover you are partying with the 21 year old son of an old high school flame? Ouch! So the party this Saturday was therefore pretty successful as I didn’t run into any more adult children of old boyfriends!

Actually by any standards this party was a success. My little brother did good and Candy’s pain of turning 40 should be somewhat assuaged by this wonderful party. Oh that reminds me of another story but as I said, my lips are sealed. Sorry family but I’ll be a good big sister and will go by the Vegas rule; What happened at the party stays at the party!