Goin' It Alone at a Birthday Party

The other day my younger daughter was invited to a birthday party for her very best first-grade friend and she was ecstatic. When I called the mother to RSVP she informed me that the party was open not just to the children but to their parents and siblings as well! Well that was really generous! Except for the fact that I'm pretty introverted and the idea of making small talk with other parents at a birthday party for two hours sounded like some kind of cruel and unusual torture. For the love of my child I would brave it…but not without dragging my husband along with me! I told him about the party and our invitation and he said "have fun!" I said, "No, no.. you misunderstand me… you're coming WITH me…" and let's just say he was resistant. However when all was said and done, I managed to get him to agree to come along. Whew! So the evening before the party I did a line-of-5 Lenormand reading to see how the party would go and pulled:

Garden - Child - Rider - Bouquet - Tower

Reading with Caitlin Matthews' Enchanted Lenormand

I love asking about a topic, and having it pop right up there in the reading! Garden - Child was the birthday party, and Child - Bouquet told me that it was going to be a positive experience for the kids in attendance (presents, an attractive atmosphere, the invitation of kids - lots of good stuff). The Tower made me sigh and grumble because that told me I was going to end up going to this party on my own, and Garden - Tower gave me the feeling of wandering around a busy party trying to figure out where I belonged, and not quite finding it. Gah. But the Rider was the card that wasn't immediately fitting into place for me. Rider is about news and messages, visitors and movement. Well, sure, there would be a lot of movement at the party with a bunch of kids running around. It could represent the actual receipt of the invitation (Rider - Bouquet) but I had asked about how the party would go, so that didn't really make sense. So I settled on "movement" and left it at that. The spread looked pretty nice, and the worst part about it was the fact I'd be flying solo, so I wasn't too concerned about the Rider.

The next morning Lourdes (my 6-year-old) was up at dawn getting ready for her 1pm party, and I was right there with her, preparing to run into to work for a while (teaching a Saturday morning class). My husband mentioned to me that at some point his friend from out of town would make an arrangement to come drop off some camera lenses that Jorge (my husband) had left there a few weeks earlier. I said that was fine, and ran out the door.  I got home around noon and was working on organizing Lourdes' hair when the doorbell rang. "They're here!" What now? Turns out that morning announcement of the friend stopping by wasn't just a general notification - it was happening that same day. Oh dear. So his friend stayed the entire afternoon, meaning that I sure did go to that birthday party alone, and now the Rider made sense! Garden - Rider was the social visit of this friend, and Tower was me going to the party on my own as a result. 

Fortunately, while the party was indeed full of small talk and general awkwardness (for the adults), the kids had a wonderful time playing, splashing around in the pool, stuffing themselves with cake and chips, and bouncing around in a bouncy house. All worth it in the end!