not my favorite Sunday

 FAST-FORWARD  TO SUNDAY:  (click 'Fast-forward' for link to 1st part of story and 'Sunday' for link to 2nd part of story) . . .

Aunt Leprechaun sent out an evite weeks ago via text msg inviting my side to the lake house for an 8th grade grad party. I prefer to get evites in my email, because I have a hard time finding them buried in texts. 

Anyway, Coach was out of town. 4 kids were caddying in a tournament. Curly was going to maybe have travel b-ball. I responded as maybe for 2. My response never registered, so Pat texted me to ask if we were coming. I texted him and responded again on the texted evite. This time I stared at it to be sure it showed up. 

Mid-week before the party, Aunt Leprechaun texted through evite to say party might be postponed because of weather. I SO WISHED FOR A RAIN DATE. I really didn't want to go as I was getting ready to go out of town, but under the 'she must be jealous' umbrella, I felt I had to show up and admire their house. Plus my godson was being honored. 

At midnight, after my text-rant to my kids, I looked at the evite. No updates or announcements. I looked at the weather:  sunny and 80. Dang, great forecast so they didn't change the date.   

I woke up that morning and decided I needed a new-lake-house gift. I hate trying to squeeze things in that weren't on my list. We ran to Marshalls and bought a very nice Tommy Bahama basket. I packed my food since I can never be sure. We got a later start than I wanted. I hoped to only stay a few hours. The drive was only a little over an hour- a bit more in traffic. 

Of course by now you've guessed, . . . no one was there. 

First we stood on the deck facing the water. If we were at the wrong house, we hoped the people would come out and tell us to scram.

Curly:  They can't be having a party. It isn't party ready. I don't even think they should invite people up here, it needs work. 

*We are spoiled because our friends have a pristine lake house. 

I called Pat. Nothing. I told Curly maybe they were all out on a pontoon boat. It'd be a crowded pontoon, but OK. I texted Leprechaun:  checking that we're at the right lake house. I called Marie. 

Marie:  OH HI. 

Me:  ARE YOU AT THE LAKE HOUSE?

Marie:  HUH? NO - IT'S . . . OMG ARE YOU THERE? OH NO. DIDN'T YOU GET THE MESSAGE? 

Instant pit in my gut. So much needed to be done at home. Trying to 'play' nice was backfiring. Curly was starving - of course, in true Shenanigan fashion she admitted she'd been looking forward to the food. As Mini later said:  OH, AND NO ONE HATES WASTING TIME MORE THAN MOM.

Aunt L called me back:  I JUST SAW YOUR TEXT. OMG. I FEEL AWFUL. YOUR KIDS SHOULD'VE ALL GOTTEN THE MESSAGE TOO. THEIR NUMBERS WERE ALL ON THE EVITE. WE JUST LEFT TO GO HOME THE KIDS WERE KIND OF SICK OF BEING THERE ALL WEEKEND, BUT WE'LL COME BACK.

*sick of being there? It was 2 on a Sunday. It's a beautiful day, huh?

Curly and I sitting on the deck while we waited
 for Aunt Leprechaun to come back. 

I begged her not to come back, saying we'd sit on the deck for a few minutes and enjoy the sun and the view and then we'd head home. She wouldn't hear of it. She was on her way. I felt so bad for ruining Curly's day. Since the tornado, we've had nothing but cool, rainy weather. We finally had pool weather and we were going to spend just under 3 hours total in the car. 

Aunt Leprechaun showed us around. Me:  "Great space. This is perfect." Curly walked out on the pier with her cousins. We chatted for 25 minutes. 

Curly later to Mini: It's a no wake lake - they can't have a boat fast enough to pull a tube.

Mini literally froze, blinking excessively. WH- WHAT? I DON'T GET IT? WHY A LAKE HOUSE IF NO TUBING? (like I said, spoiled by friends' lake houses. My kids like their tubing. I'm fine without, but Mini was hilarious in her NO, THIS ISN'T A THING response. 

BTW - none of my kids got a 'we're postponing the party' text from evite. I did let Leprechaun know that in a carefully, intentionally-friendly way. Lad and Ed have iPhones now, so no one can point fingers and blame Androids. 

When Curly and I drove home, I shared my food with her. I managed a strained giggle. CURLY, ANOTHER BLOGGER, ALLY, JUST WROTE A POST THAT SHE CALLED SOME POSTS JUST WRITE THEMSELVES. I GUESS THAT'S WHAT THIS IS. 

Curly half laughed. I couldn't blame her. 

Part of my frustration:  I try to create distance with my family of origin, but this seems to be a simple case of Damned if I do, and damned if I don't. Even simple stuff like:  TELL DAD TO CALL MY KIDS NEXT TIME TO GO IN THE CRAWL SPACE turns into a WE STILL PREFER PAT OVER YOU moment. If I didn't have distance, would I have heard about the cancelled party through family conversation? This, the family that loves group texts? Why not check to be sure everyone got the flipping message. Like I said, layers.

Have you ever showed up to a party on the wrong day? Wrong time? Wrong house? Wished for a different family? (kidding!)