The Nest

Oh no no no: a First Birthday party I'm glad I didn't go to

Posted Sunday, August 05, 2007 2:26 PM

Okay, I'm no mother of a one-year-old, but I certainly know this is not acceptable...

I called Chris yesterday to see how the birthday party went for my best friend's son.  I was in between photographing the wedding and the reception and had a minute to check in, around 5:30.  He was still at the party!  It started at 2, so I was shocked he was still there.  He said that the birthday boy was taking a nap that he went down for at 4:30, and I was wondering what in the heck they did at this party from 2 to 4:30 that didn't entail him eating his cake and opening his gifts!  They had done NONE of that by 5:30.  I get that most of the people there were family and didn't mind just sitting around, but my husband drove one hour to get there and he was doing me a favor by going (her husband would certainly never come to something at my house if his wife wasn't going to be there).  He sat around with a bunch of people he didn't know, and he ended up being there for 4.5 hours because my friend threw the most unorganized party ever.  Then, after sitting around (in the horrible heat by the way since it was an outdoor party and it was about 97 degrees all day) waiting for nap time to be over, when the cake and gift part finally ended and Chris got ready to head home, my friend had the nerve to say to him, "Oh, you got what you came for so I guess you'll leave now."  No, he sat around for 4 hours before you decided to start the birthday stuff, and he should have left long ago!  

Keep in mind that my brother had driven 3 hours into town (way old plans) to visit with Chris and was just sitting at my house waiting for Chris to come home, so Chris told my friend he wanted to get home to see my brother since he'd been waiting there alone for 2 plus hours, and my friend had more nerve to say, "Maybe he should have left town earlier than so he could have come to the party too."  Like my brother was going to leave by 10 am just to rush to Dayton to meet Chris to drive another hour to Cincinnati for her son's birthday party, who he doesn't even know!  Chris said my friend made this party 100% about her and not at all about her son or the 30 people who spent their entire Saturday just sitting at their house waiting for the birthday boy to do his thing.  I'm really mad about it and don't even want to talk to my friend about the party at this point.

Side note: I made it home alive after a really really long day and a lot of driving.  I got home around 1:30 am.  I relied on a trusty collection of old sing-along-to songs to get me through the trip, which included a 30 mile drive OUT OF THE WAY thanks to both google maps AND mapquest telling me to take Route 30 East when I clearly was supposed to take Route 30 West.  I unfortunately drove quite far before stopping to ask someone (at the first gas station I saw - believe me, this wedding was in the middle of NOWHERE) and finding out I was going the way wrong way. Thanks internet mapping!