Let's Get This Party Started

(Pink, 2002)

We got it started all right. And ended (sigh). Ron was up before dawn this morning making sure there were adequate seating venues around the yard for Tyler's graduation party and patiently doing the 821 things I had on my "Martha Stewart Guide the Perfect Party" list. Ty and I ran around town picking up desserts, and then Ty went on an errand spree, returning with, among other things, $2.42 worth of goldfish to put in one of our birdbaths. We had one Nemo who jumped the tank, but the others provided much entertainment and not one got swallowed. On the way home from our dessert round-up we were talking about the picnic we had after Ron's mom's funeral (how many picnics have you been to after a funeral?) and that all the food for the entire picnic (for about 50 people) cost just $100 more than the petit fours and cookies we'd just picked up. After my mom saw the guest book I designed for Tyler she said I should try and sell them. I told her they were kind of pricey. "So?" she said. "People spend ridiculous amounts of money on graduation stuff." Consider us ridiculous. Very, very ridiculous.

We had enough food for the armies of Napoleon AND Sherman. And enough petit fours and cookies to induce eighty-five diabetic comas. Those petit fours were SINFULLY good. The chocolate ones just dissolved in your mouth . . . If those petit fours, you know, winked at me, Mr. Clooney might have to find another paramour.

The party really was a lot of fun. We got to see several people we hadn't seen in many years, which is always fun (and, at the same time, disgusting because you can just feel the gray hair and fine lines fighting to make their evil and unstoppable presence known). We had a "photo booth" set up with a cool backdrop Kate and Morghan painted, and Kate took Polaroid shots of everyone. Two of Tyler's elementary school teachers came and two of his favorite HS teachers also dropped by. (I'm making a note to have a posting about how teachers have changed since I was in school. Should be quite entertaining.) And we had the coolest music. Kate put together two cd's that had everything from "The House of the Rising Sun" to "Sweet Home Alabama" to some David Bowie nonsense. He's so creepy.

I've got another choice for Tyler's wife that's giving Danielle a run for her money. Her name is Sydney and she's SO funny. And smart, and beautiful. She's got really huge dimples, so if she and Tyler ever had kids, their cheeks would just be these huge holes where small animals could build nests or where things of great magnitude could disappear, like the Bermuda Triangle.

And, in case you're wondering . . . Martha has left the building. Praise the Lord.