Surprise! and Survive!

At a friend's surprise birthday party on Saturday night I had a revelation - there are few problems that can't be softened by a glass of champers, doing the whoo whoo dance and karaoke rendition of "I Will Survive."

via

And this from me, a person who enters every karaoke party with the mantra: "Don't let me sing, not going to sing."

The surprise party was a welcome break from days and nights of vacillating between filling out forms and not (but thinking about them anyway.) Responding to emails and not (but thinking....) This year our four kids are at three different schools and it's been an even louder blasting of Back-To-School paperwork, emails about sports teams, carpools, after-school activities, evening meetings and constant, constant pleas for volunteers.  You respond - more work and more driving. You don't respond - guilt, guilt, guilt.

Amidst this, two other birthdays; Kevin's and Harley's.  Since Harley was born 14 years ago, it's been a family tradition that Kevin's birthday passed without fuss. (Okay I always forget.) But this year - surprise! - I had nothing planned for Harley either. Pretty shameful as Harley always orders gifts and makes cards for others.  I was relying on the potluck dinner after his football practise where all his teammates sang him Happy Birthday. "Wasn't that a lovely dinner, Harley? Nice birthday treat for you!" The next night my friend Gloria and her family took him to Fentons for ice-cream where the whole room sang him Happy Birthday again.

Harley at Fentons

Kevin's birthday last night. Surprise - again we were rescued us from another cake-less night.  All the kids and I had to do was clean up and friends arrived with chillybins packed with drinks and dinner: Mike's skirt steak with chimichurri sauce, fresh corn, Sandy with Veuve,  her mustard gourmet mac'n'cheese, heirloom tomatoes and peach pie.

Cy and Tallulah getting the house ready

Tallulah's card for Kevin

Between the birthdays, the emails keep coming, twisting me into knots of indecision. West African dancing, percussion lessons for Tallulah, 10?  Fantastic! I spent a week mulling over which class she would love the most, could she handle two things after school, how on earth could I pick her up? I left it so long the classes were full or cancelled. "Mum, I didn't want to do it anyway" Tallulah confessed: "soccer is enough for me."

I just emailed another parent and a refreshing auto-reply came back: "I have sworn off email for the time being." That got me thinking - what would happen if I didn't look at my emails? I suspect... I will survive. With a little help from my friends.

Tallulah waves goodbye