30 years....now that's a long time

A smile came over my face just now when I was looking for a title for today's story time. It reminds me of all the times at GAM with the Mariners. I think of Kathy bugging out her eyes and literally making contact with the 30-60 girls there any given year and telling us, "40 years...45 years...50 years, girls, that's a long time." This may not mean much to you, but Kathy lived the Mariners all those millions of years and thank goodness she did. She brings a personality to the program that no one could ever replace.

This past weekend, though, the big number was 30. Congratulations to my parents who have lovingly survived in marriage for 30 years now, much longer than the 5 I did. Hell, my sister and I barely withstood a month of planning their big 30 shindig. It was the Luau of Luau's I must say.

Our planning, and my sister's extreme hard work on her house and decorating, paid off for the sake of my parents. My parents were totally surprised and even cried when their brains had a few moments to process what was going on after the quick heart attack of having 100 plus people yelling surprise as they walked into the house. From 4pm til 1am, I never saw my parents without huge grins on their faces.

Party day started off a little rough for me. I woke up not wanting to get out of bed, nor wanting to go to the party. I only had a short list of things to attend to, but as I watched the clock tick each second of the morning away, I started getting more and more miserable about going to the party, dealing with the pressure of all the people and the possibility of missing something we should've remembered. At noon, I finally started stumbling out of bed (I should've already had my short list of things completed by then and headed to the party). As I begrudgedly showered and started getting ready, saint #1, Dana, called to see if she could help with anything but guessed I was already at the party with everything under control. Good thing she didn't put money on that guess. She took over the last minute shopping list for me and even ran it over to my sister's long before I ever made it there. After hanging up with her I decided to screw the makeup and hawaiian clothes, I just needed to get out of the house. I was more than out of time and couldn't keep fussing about hoping I would come down with some legitimate excuse not to go to the party. (at least I'm starting to discipline myself, at times)

Once on my way to pick up food, saint #2, my ex-m-i-l, called. She didn't want to ruin the surprise by showing up at the same time as my parents to the party so she was inquiring about when my parents were supposed to be there....Good question! I told her I would get back to her later on her question but could she do me a favor that I am sure would delay her so she wouldn't arrive at the same time as them. I asked her to stop and by me something Hawaiian to wear and while she was at it, could she get something for my boyfriend too (I had promised to do that for him earlier in the morning). Things were starting to look better and not so dreadfully awful.

Things always come together for me when I actually make myself go do whatever it is I'm avoiding. Someday I might actually pre-program that into my little brain so leaving the comforts of my little world won't be so difficult.

When things seem to be finally pulling together for me, I finally decided to relax a little and have a large margarita when I went to pick up the food for the party...so much for finally getting ahead. (I do have to say it made the initial rush of unfamiliar people at the beginning of the party a lot easier to take).

Here's to the next party (and hoping it is someone else's problem).