Party Like It's 2009

Sorry, no lame cute picture of me wearing 2009 glasses.

 We planned a nice, quiet appetizer-eating, cocktail-drinking, movie-watching night at home for New Year’s Eve. We’d been invited to a party a few weeks ago, you know one of those invitations where someone says, “Hey we’re having a New Year’s Eve party. Why don’t you stop by?” It’s a vague invitation. I got out of work at 6 and Mitch said we got another invite to that party, “Jim called me and asked us to stop by anytime. He said there will be lots of kids there.” Jim is Mitch’s co-worker and he lives about 10 minutes from our house. “Lot’s of kids there..” was all Sissy needed to hear, plus she knew one of the girls that would be there, so we decided to go. We left the house at about 7:45.  Once we got on his street, Mitch said there should be a lot of cars at his house because they were expecting about 60 people. We’re watching the house numbers and getting closer and not seeing lots of cars. We slowly drive by his house and it’s completely dark and there aren’t any cars out front. Hmmm..now we’re wondering if it’s the right house. We go around the loop and pass by again, no cars, house is still dark. Hmmm.. we pull up a little farther and Mitch calls information to get Jim’s phone number. It comes back with his address also, so yes, it is the right house. Mitch tries to call the house and gets the answering machine. Now we’re wondering what’s going on. Why tell someone to stop by anytime if there isn’t actually anyone at home. WUWT? By now we’re sitting out in front of someone else’s house for about 10 minutes. All of a sudden they flipped on their spotlight so we took off. We did the loop again, drove by really slowly and still nothing. By this time J-Man is sound asleep and Sissy is getting hungry. She didn’t have very much for dinner and was looking forward to the “tons of food” at the party. Now it’s after 8 and we head to Wendy’s hoping to get her a little something to tide her over. No lights on there either. So across the street to McDonald’s. We see a couple workers inside so we go to the drive-thru. We sit there waiting for someone to say something over the speaker. Apparently, they are also closed and the 2 people inside can’t walk over to the intercom and say, “Sorry we’re closed.” No, they have to hide inside even though we saw them and not say anything. By now I’m starting to get a complex. First a party that nobody is at then McDonald’s employees ignoring us. It’s about 8:30, Sissy is starving, J-Man is still asleep. Mitch says “Maybe it starts at nine and we’ll give it a few more minutes and see what’s up.” Back to Jim’s neighborhood to do the loop again. Still no sign of anyone. Mitch tries to call them again….nothing. We’ve circled the neighborhood about 7 times and wouldn’t be surprised if the police pulled us over because of a complaint of a suspicious SUV casing out the neighborhood. “Gee, officer, we’re going to this party here. Yup, the house does appear empty. No really, we were invited.” Just as we come around the loop again, another SUV goes by and Mitch thinks it’s Jim’s. We follow behind them, though kind of slow because if it is him, we don’t want him to think we’ve been waiting for him to show up and be the first ones there. As we go slowly by, we see him out there frantically shoveling his driveway and throwing down salt. Okay, looks like somebody is finally home. One more loop around the neighborhood because we don’t want to be the first people to arrive at a party that we weren’t even planning on going to. We pull up outside and get a good look at his driveway, which is straight up and covered in a sheet of ice. Sissy wakes J-Man up by poking him in the face, which, of course, upsets him. Sissy makes it up Mt Everest Driveway (MED)because she’s a kid. Mitch and I are both holding on to J-Man’s hands, who’s tired and grumpy, and attempting to get to the top. Mitch starts slipping backwards and I can just imagine us playing tug of war with J-Man in between us. I tell him “Let go of Daddy’s hand” At this point it’s too late for Mitch and I forge on ahead with J-Man. We make it to the top of MED and look back. Mitch is standing with both legs apart and bent at the knees, both arms are out straight as he’s trying to keep his balance. By now I’m bent over, laughing uncontrollably over the whole situation. Somehow he makes it to the top of MED and we go in. We say hi, Sissy disappears to the basement with all the kids. I’m on the couch with J-Man and next thing we know he’s sound asleep again. Then I hear the best line of the night from our host. “I’m surprised he fell asleep. It’s such a short ride over here. “