Red hads, blue shirts, sweet 16, and Cinco de Mayo
When I saw my cousin at the concert last week, she mentioned that SJ's birthday was coming up and perhaps they'd have a party. I've never been to a party for SJ, and given that she's turning 16, it's a good milestone year. On Thursday, I got the email saying, I know it's last-minute, but if you're free, you're welcome to join us on Saturday. Mom already had plans with the Red Hats, and dad had wanted to work on finishing the bathroom all weekend, so only I went.
I got greeted by CC before I even got out of my car. SJ was standing in the doorway, but CC ran all the way out, kinda freaking me out, actually, like I wasn't sure I wanted to get out of my car. She was all, are you married yet?!? I held up my hand to show my finger was ringless. And so it begins. Shortly before I left, later that night, we had this exchange:
CC: The next time I see you, I expect you to have a husband, or at least a boyfriend!
Me: Well, I guess I'm never seeing you again.
Upon entering the house, I saw my cousin right away, and I said, oh, you got the blue memo. I was wearing skorts, essentially, which I wore purposely because I haven't fit in them for over a decade, and the weather was nice, and on top I had this dark blue cami. She was wearing a dark blue tank top, basically the same color. When my goddaughter came in, she was wearing a blue jumper; Aunt D also wore a blue shirt; and Aunt T had this blue-gray top on. I'd mentioned that mom had her Red Hat thing, so my cousin said, they have red hats; we have blue shirts. We eventually took a group photo that got posted to Facebook, and somehow my mom got tagged on the picture despite not being there. We don't know how that happened.* As my cousin is trying to look at the picture on her phone, we can see that people are commenting. My mom and my California aunt were both replying. We got a fair amount of comments in a short period of time immediately following the picture's posting, which was pretty amusing.
(*This is how my mother's mind works. She thought she got tagged in the picture because somehow my cousin had logged in under mom's name. Like...do you understand how logging in works? You need to know someone's username and their password. You cannot just go, hey, I want to be in this person's account, and them bam! There you go. Seriously. My mother is special. And it wasn't that mom thought that I had logged in; since my cousin had posted it, therefore that meant it was my cousin under mom's account. Because my not-tech-savvy cousin could do that on her phone. We still have no idea how that happened as no names were attached to the picture and I don't look enough like my mom to have triggered an algorithm. My guess was maybe it thought Aunt D was mom. Bizarre. But not as bizarre as my mother's thought processes.)
I was glad to see that SJ had a decent amount of friends over. They mostly kept to themselves in the front room, while the adults hung in the backyard. It was a beautiful day, in the 80s, so it was perfect outside. Well, until the beer fountain went off. My goddaughter went to get her dad a beer, and he has these animal head beer openers mounted on the posts for the outdoor canopies. She couldn't figure out how to take off the cap while holding the beer upright, so she flipped it upside down. While she managed to get the cap off, she also managed to spray nearly everyone with beer in the process. I was the farthest away from the action but still managed to get it on my glasses, my leg, my purse. It wasn't very much, so despite my fear of thinking I'd reek of beer the rest of the day, I didn't seem to. She got a fair amount of beer on her, though, and we joked that she only gave her dad half a beer. Later, when she wasn't there, her husband joked that if he wanted half a beer, he knew where to get one. Silly girl.
Food was pizza and cake, with the cake coming from a good local bakery. They'd gotten one of those fancy birthday candles where you light it up and it opens into a flower that spins and plays music. I was standing by the wall to take a few pictures and when I turned around, nearly all of SJ's friends were holding up their phones to take video. Oh, to be a teenager in this time period. SJ herself was recording it, even! Oh, man. That's what they were doing much of the time, recording themselves and either immediately uploading the videos or else playing them right back, as I'd hear a sound I'd just heard live now coming from their phones. Weird. I am so glad I don't have to deal with that. Even CC is all about the social media, taking selfies and pictures of other stuff to make Snapchat stories. T wasn't there; she had a concert last night, a big fancy one, so she was gone the whole time. Except...she posted her own Snapchat story that involved going to see the new Avengers movie at Oakbrook Center at 2:30. Like, she posted the ticket with the date and time and everything. Totally busted, girl.
SJ opened presents at 7 PM, which was around when some of her dad's friends showed up. She'd already opened her card from Aunt T (her grandma) before the party, I think. When SJ got to my goddaughter's card, Aunt T started laughing--it was the same card. So then she was told to find Aunt D's card...because she hit the trifecta. Yep, three identical cards, all about turning 16 and being old enough to drive, and could you warn us when you're behind the wheel so that we know to stay home? Heh. I've had a gift for her for months, a blatant regifting of something my grandma gave me for Christmas--this time capsule thing that clearly belongs to someone under 40, who still has hopes and dreams and aspirations. You know, like a girl in high school. SJ did not seem that enamored of it, but perhaps when she gets a chance to really look at it she'll like it better. Turns out I should have gotten her yarn. Several of her friends did and that was a happy thing. She belongs to some sort of knitting club at school so maybe some of the kids at her party were from there.
One of her dad's friends showed up right about 7, and he parked his bike behind my car. He and my cousin's husband were talking by the bike and this squirrel showed up. The squirrel was super curious about them and kept paying attention to them, even going around and under the bike to keep an eye on things. The friend somehow got a maraschino cherry and spent way too much time attempting to get the squirrel to take it. At one point the squirrel ended up in the tree right outside the front window, staring into the house while grabbing the branch in this funny manner. You bet I tried to get a few pictures. The dude was out there for seriously half an hour, with everyone going, he is SO getting bit in the face and getting rabies. Luckily he didn't. He stayed for maybe another hour, though shortly after leaving the squirrel alone, Aunt D left. She and the guy must have been talking, and when they said goodbye in the kitchen, she said, next time there's a party, come earlier! He told her, I was told to come at 7; she said, I was told 3:30! So the friend opens the door to the backyard and says to my cousin's husband, the next time Aunt D comes over, invite me too! Heh. That was strange and unusual. But he seems like a nice-enough guy when he's not bugging the wild animals.
I had tried to leave for a while, but you get to talking and stuff happens. It was later in the evening when the picture got posted (that same biker friend had been one of the photographers, joking around and making us pose like models; maybe that's how he and Aunt D hit it off) and my cousin was showing me other things from Facebook. Both she and my goddaughter also showed me something my mom had posted: "In a relationship with mashed potatoes." Well, mom does love potatoes, sometimes more than my father. But probably around 9:20 I got out of there, which was good, because I was really tired. I've been exhausted today and not up for much (which is what made the ant situation even more bothersome), but at least I didn't have to work today.
I got greeted by CC before I even got out of my car. SJ was standing in the doorway, but CC ran all the way out, kinda freaking me out, actually, like I wasn't sure I wanted to get out of my car. She was all, are you married yet?!? I held up my hand to show my finger was ringless. And so it begins. Shortly before I left, later that night, we had this exchange:
CC: The next time I see you, I expect you to have a husband, or at least a boyfriend!
Me: Well, I guess I'm never seeing you again.
Upon entering the house, I saw my cousin right away, and I said, oh, you got the blue memo. I was wearing skorts, essentially, which I wore purposely because I haven't fit in them for over a decade, and the weather was nice, and on top I had this dark blue cami. She was wearing a dark blue tank top, basically the same color. When my goddaughter came in, she was wearing a blue jumper; Aunt D also wore a blue shirt; and Aunt T had this blue-gray top on. I'd mentioned that mom had her Red Hat thing, so my cousin said, they have red hats; we have blue shirts. We eventually took a group photo that got posted to Facebook, and somehow my mom got tagged on the picture despite not being there. We don't know how that happened.* As my cousin is trying to look at the picture on her phone, we can see that people are commenting. My mom and my California aunt were both replying. We got a fair amount of comments in a short period of time immediately following the picture's posting, which was pretty amusing.
(*This is how my mother's mind works. She thought she got tagged in the picture because somehow my cousin had logged in under mom's name. Like...do you understand how logging in works? You need to know someone's username and their password. You cannot just go, hey, I want to be in this person's account, and them bam! There you go. Seriously. My mother is special. And it wasn't that mom thought that I had logged in; since my cousin had posted it, therefore that meant it was my cousin under mom's account. Because my not-tech-savvy cousin could do that on her phone. We still have no idea how that happened as no names were attached to the picture and I don't look enough like my mom to have triggered an algorithm. My guess was maybe it thought Aunt D was mom. Bizarre. But not as bizarre as my mother's thought processes.)
I was glad to see that SJ had a decent amount of friends over. They mostly kept to themselves in the front room, while the adults hung in the backyard. It was a beautiful day, in the 80s, so it was perfect outside. Well, until the beer fountain went off. My goddaughter went to get her dad a beer, and he has these animal head beer openers mounted on the posts for the outdoor canopies. She couldn't figure out how to take off the cap while holding the beer upright, so she flipped it upside down. While she managed to get the cap off, she also managed to spray nearly everyone with beer in the process. I was the farthest away from the action but still managed to get it on my glasses, my leg, my purse. It wasn't very much, so despite my fear of thinking I'd reek of beer the rest of the day, I didn't seem to. She got a fair amount of beer on her, though, and we joked that she only gave her dad half a beer. Later, when she wasn't there, her husband joked that if he wanted half a beer, he knew where to get one. Silly girl.
Food was pizza and cake, with the cake coming from a good local bakery. They'd gotten one of those fancy birthday candles where you light it up and it opens into a flower that spins and plays music. I was standing by the wall to take a few pictures and when I turned around, nearly all of SJ's friends were holding up their phones to take video. Oh, to be a teenager in this time period. SJ herself was recording it, even! Oh, man. That's what they were doing much of the time, recording themselves and either immediately uploading the videos or else playing them right back, as I'd hear a sound I'd just heard live now coming from their phones. Weird. I am so glad I don't have to deal with that. Even CC is all about the social media, taking selfies and pictures of other stuff to make Snapchat stories. T wasn't there; she had a concert last night, a big fancy one, so she was gone the whole time. Except...she posted her own Snapchat story that involved going to see the new Avengers movie at Oakbrook Center at 2:30. Like, she posted the ticket with the date and time and everything. Totally busted, girl.
SJ opened presents at 7 PM, which was around when some of her dad's friends showed up. She'd already opened her card from Aunt T (her grandma) before the party, I think. When SJ got to my goddaughter's card, Aunt T started laughing--it was the same card. So then she was told to find Aunt D's card...because she hit the trifecta. Yep, three identical cards, all about turning 16 and being old enough to drive, and could you warn us when you're behind the wheel so that we know to stay home? Heh. I've had a gift for her for months, a blatant regifting of something my grandma gave me for Christmas--this time capsule thing that clearly belongs to someone under 40, who still has hopes and dreams and aspirations. You know, like a girl in high school. SJ did not seem that enamored of it, but perhaps when she gets a chance to really look at it she'll like it better. Turns out I should have gotten her yarn. Several of her friends did and that was a happy thing. She belongs to some sort of knitting club at school so maybe some of the kids at her party were from there.
One of her dad's friends showed up right about 7, and he parked his bike behind my car. He and my cousin's husband were talking by the bike and this squirrel showed up. The squirrel was super curious about them and kept paying attention to them, even going around and under the bike to keep an eye on things. The friend somehow got a maraschino cherry and spent way too much time attempting to get the squirrel to take it. At one point the squirrel ended up in the tree right outside the front window, staring into the house while grabbing the branch in this funny manner. You bet I tried to get a few pictures. The dude was out there for seriously half an hour, with everyone going, he is SO getting bit in the face and getting rabies. Luckily he didn't. He stayed for maybe another hour, though shortly after leaving the squirrel alone, Aunt D left. She and the guy must have been talking, and when they said goodbye in the kitchen, she said, next time there's a party, come earlier! He told her, I was told to come at 7; she said, I was told 3:30! So the friend opens the door to the backyard and says to my cousin's husband, the next time Aunt D comes over, invite me too! Heh. That was strange and unusual. But he seems like a nice-enough guy when he's not bugging the wild animals.
I had tried to leave for a while, but you get to talking and stuff happens. It was later in the evening when the picture got posted (that same biker friend had been one of the photographers, joking around and making us pose like models; maybe that's how he and Aunt D hit it off) and my cousin was showing me other things from Facebook. Both she and my goddaughter also showed me something my mom had posted: "In a relationship with mashed potatoes." Well, mom does love potatoes, sometimes more than my father. But probably around 9:20 I got out of there, which was good, because I was really tired. I've been exhausted today and not up for much (which is what made the ant situation even more bothersome), but at least I didn't have to work today.