A dozen kids sitting in Taco Bell on a Saturday at 1:00 in the afternoon. Not so unusual. Picture them all in formal wear and it gets a bit stranger. Take a more careful look...one boy is in a nice jacket and tie with black knee length shorts and thong sandals, one of the girls is wearing sneakers under her formal...ah, so is another in addition to the warm up pants under the thin gold lame gown. It's hard to figure out whether they're coming from or going to a dance...but look there's a pile of presents on a table in the center of the place. What's going on?
People come in and out of the little fast food restaurant. All of them do double takes, some smile, some seem bewildered. Every now and then one of the workers comes up to the counter area, looks at the group of teens and seems to think this is quite funny.
It's my daughter's 16th birthday party. It could have been anywhere but this is what she asked for. Her friends are all polite to me as I greet them, I chat with the ones I know fairly well. They are a group of kids with acting and singing and silliness in common with Erin. I know most of them, some I've known longer than others, a couple were in Erin's middle school choir with her, others are new High School friends. After most have arrived we all go up to the register and each one orders something, the final total is pennies over $40. This is the cheapest birthday I've done in quite a while.
My son and my boyfriend are also there, Matt has a suit and tie, Glenn has a nice shirt, tie and khakis...I'm really the only one not dressed up, I didn't expect Glenn to come and I was going to just fade into the background as it's Erin's day.
One of her friends, Antoinette, has been at every one of Erin's parties for the last 7 years. She brought a wonderful present that she made for Erin, a notebook filled with pictures, stories and several pages of greetings from Erin's friends. I know Erin will treasure it. Many of the presents represent homages to the group's "in jokes" and personalities...it's fun to watch them all interact.
I'm so happy that she has such a great group of friends, boys and girls in equal numbers...some are new friends, some, like Ant, old reliables. I hope she has friends and fun like this all her life.
Posted by Dawno at November 23, 2003 05:38 PM