Thursday, June 24, 2010

I Won't Waste One Single Day...(starting right....now...)...

I am 100% unprepared for the end of the school year and the start of summer...and you know, I have a million things to do before Friday at 1:05 p.m., when the kids are dismissed from George Washington School...and did I mention that a mere 16 hours past dismissal we will be picked up by some stretch van with 4 rows...and said van will deliver us 26 miles east to John F. Kennedy Airport...and I will board the early Jet Blue flight to Bermuda with the kids and my parents and sisters (both brothers are no shows this year...) and nephew.... and our friends, Kerry and Fred's nine year old daughter, Kathleen, who is our guest and Ellie's companion in lieu of my niece, who will be experiencing summer at Ithaca College. And once the jet lifts off, thus begins Summer, 2010....officially.

So anyway, all I mean to communicate here is to say that I am utterly unprepared...have not
packed or even gathered up belongings for myself and the other three human beings I am responsible for... Instead, I am taking the championship in procrastination and training for the Olympic medal in attention deficit disorder. Instead, I am attending every year end party and lunch and brunch and school assembly and PTO kaffeeklatsch and kindergarten graduation. I am taking full afternoons and evenings to socialize and kick back and divert my focus entirely. And even now, here I sit, writing this all down so I can say goodbye for the week..so we can have one last moment together...and so you get the full picture, you should know I write this as I lounge on the floor of my bedroom in a tank top and shorty shorts that say "ACK" across my a** (so refined!!)...my TiVo playing and replaying a Top Chef marathon, my empty suitcase and very full closet left untouched. Well, I told you this was the Olympic medal in ADD, did I not????

Don't worry though...once I am done chit chatting with all of you, I will go into turbo mode and somehow, as I drop off, pick up, hit two consecutive swim practices and a meet with Tim, purchase riding britches and paddock boots for Ellie, celebrate the birth of a friend's baby and then celebrate another friend's marriage, somehow I will have every flip flop, beaded necklace, fun dress and cute tankini in my collection all neatly packed and waiting at the foot of the stairs...be assured of that.

But before I get to that I had to tell you all about the old school keg party we hit this weekend on a vast lawn few blocks over... live classic rock cover band setting the scene...and Skinny Girl margaritas (ok...not so old school...) served up by the Indian Trail Club women's Round Robin tennis champs... Sounds upscale really...and it was...even with the keg and the band and the port-o-johns...and we wore adorable outfits and flirty summer shoes showing off our manicured toes and lightly tanned shoulders.

We started the night on Gwen and Joe's patio (same spot I was the night before with Nance and Amber...and that was after I hit Kim's poolside with the Gourmet posse...)...anyway, on Gwen's patio we enjoyed beers and kir royales and vodka gimlets...with Sam and Chris and Suse and Scott (Scott having just completed the Franklin Lakes triathalon and placing in the Top 50...congrats to all my friends who participated by the way -- Mary, Kathy, Jimmy, Mike, Chris -- I was cheering you on...a spicy Bloody Mary in hand...or maybe it was an ice cream cone...)...I digress.... So I spent the entire day leading up to and those last moments on the patio at Gwen's before the kegger trying to convince everyone that we had to do as we did back in the day of the genuine high school keg party and walk to the fest en masse up Wyckoff Avenue. And Gwen and Sam were on board, but by the time Suse and Scott arrived, the guys had already talked us out of it...and we all hopped in the SUVs and drove the 8/10 of a mile instead (bunch of pansies...).

So we arrived with our hostess gifts and kissed our hosts and then found TJ and Jim who had staked out a cocktail table on the patio...positioned equidistant from the buffet and the dance floor (which was really just a stretch of lush green grass in front of the lead singer's microphone...)... And when Helen came around with a pitcher of those Skinny Girl things (made of Patron and Fresca and lime juice, I think...sort of like 7Up on steroids...) we swiped the entire thing from her as she labeled our cocktail glasses with our names...like we were grown up 5 year olds at some Twilight Zone backyard barbecue...priceless!! And we drained that pitcher almost immediately...in no time another appeared...and soon Pina and Colleen and the Pauls arrived...and by then we were enjoying ourselves tremendously.

So the night went on and I know that at some point I was demonstrating the difference in height between myself and my predecessor as PTO president by standing on my tippy toes and then squatting down extra low and waving up at the crowd above who guffawed endlessly and my ridiculousness...but I am spot on...she is at least a foot taller than me, and she stood there laughing as I mocked us...so we are an odd pair, that's all... Anyway, it was at this time that Helen and Sam and Chris and Gwen and Joe started playing quarters on that mini-cocktail table and Helen kept choosing me to drink, even though I was not playing....so when I saw ADP and CDP make their appearance I grabbed TJ and we escaped to greet them...ADP grabbed a bottle of water, and without much discussion, we hit the dance floor. Just the three of us. Alone. All alone.

And you know the drill....we laughed and hugged and danced like we were co-eds once again...demoing our best pseudo-Dead Head moves... You know, my bohemianish preppy gal strapless shift could have been a stylish Dead Head's dress, I suppose...and Trish had a long beaded necklace on, so that qualified... But you see...we broke the ice by being the first to take the plunge and soon the Indian Trail tennis posse and the PTO gals and Suse and Pina and Colleen gathered around us...and then when some guy who was apparently the husband of one of the playground moms took over on the drums, the legit drummer came out and thanked us profusely when we pulled him into our little dance circle... So yet again...we made someone's night...what else is new??? Or maybe not...Ha!

At any rate...after our American Bandstand moment we sneaked to the front yard and told stories and I think TJ and I marveled over how gorgeous and fit Colleen looks barely a month post baby...and we almost convinced one another that it wouldn't be so bad to have another baby even though we are so far out of the woods, our youngest ones big kids now (knife in my heart...)...But you know, why should we let our post 35ishness and a guaranteed C-section stop us???...ummmm...where do I begin?...clearly those Skinny Girl things were potent (it's the Fresca) and our senses had escaped us... Time to go!

So we made our exit...grabbing the crew and waving goodbye to all...Suse and Scott and Gwen and Joe with us (Sam and Chris performed the Irish Goodbye at least two hours prior...), traipsing down Wyckoff Avenue like a bunch of sophomores...and piling into an SUV to drive home the 8/10's of a mile...like the old b**tards we are becoming. Still...it was only midnight, the night had been full... we were fun and lively and we played quarters and we danced and we hung with the band...

And here we are...almost a week past the kegger and I am no closer to being ready to leave for a week in paradise with my three babies...Rum Swizzles and cobalt seas await me...why am I not prepared??? But...I have convinced myself that it will happen regardless...it always does...somehow I always pull through...and I can still hit every year end party and lunch and brunch and school assembly and PTO kaffeeklatsch and even my baby boy's kindergarten graduation along the way. And so I will be a little spent by the time we deplane in Bermuda...nothing a few Rum Swizzles and a pretty sunset won't cure.

And then I will come home in July and get right back to it with camps and parties and visits and trips and summer fun....but I'll have had my one week in paradise, which is even so much more than I could ask for...well that and a rocking tan....

Kisses and hugs to all my summer loves...
xoxo


Photos:
1. The kids and I on a misty Hamilton Harbor a few days in the future...or maybe it was in the hazy past...either way, could it get much better???
2. Baby Boy...my sweet little darling as he graduates from kindergarten Wednesday afternoon...and if you think I wasn't weeping throughout, you are sadly mistaken...
3. A pitcher of b**tardized Skinny Girl margaritas (with Fresca!) alongside our labeled keg party cups...please note Sam's is also labeled "Left Fist." Pretty sure there was a gimlet on the right side....
4. Gwen, me and Sam...toasting the first of many backyard parties this summer...
5. Third time new mom Colleen, Suse, Pina and me...kind of looks like I am getting a little friendly with Pina...it was the pseudo margaritas!!
6. Helen and Sam kick a bunch of dudes' a**es in quarters...without breaking a sweat...
7. TJ and me on the dance floor/grassy knoll...channeling the stoner sorority girls within...
8. Legit drummer and thrilled dancing partner surrounded by my gorgeous and festive girlfriends, (left to right) Colleen, Suse, ADP, TJ and Pina...
9. ADP, TJ, me and Gwen....I'd say legs up in the air is usually a sign to call it a night...usually...
10. Rum Swizzles are waiting for me...at the Swizzle Inn, Bailey's Bay, Bermuda...yum yum!

4 comments:

Helen Bonzulak said...

ha ha Suz.. You crack me up with your "Packaging"... I must set the record tho... I am nooo ITC, ..how'd you put it? ...ITC round robin champ?? Not yet atleast. One day, my friend!! And sadly, no itc posee there either. (Maybe that was another party you hit this week?!) :D
Fun stuff, really makes it look like we "live the life!" SupaStars!!
Love ya, good luck w/ packing and BonVoyage! xoH

Suz said...

Helen, Helen, Helen, my love...I know you took Freshman English and learned about imagery, right???

ITC Round Robin tennis team=WASPy chicks...

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