Party Like It's Your Birthday

Mom and Me at My First Birthday Party

I was one cool kid. I mean, I had a sweet pageboy haircut, I was into the “theater-arts”, and I liked to use big words like “peruse” and “behoove” while meticulously detailing business plans with all my little eight-year-old friends. Ok. Maybe it’s a good thing I had a cool mom.

She made me cool long before I knew I could be. She knew how to throw a party and I became legendary for my birthdays. There was the “nerd-themed” party at which Erica Dunlop showed up in her girl scout uniform with her head-gear on…and won the costume contest hands-down. Then there was the “fifties” sock-hop at which we blared “Rock-Around-the-Clock” and mom taught us the hand-jive in our garage. {I was pretty-much born to hand-jive, baby.} There was the year she sent us out in teams to scout the neighbors’ homes for scavenger hunt goodies (“Good evening Ms. Jones. Might you have a calendar from 1982?”), and there were all those sleep-overs. Oh the sleep-overs, a total misnomer since we rarely slept, but for which she planned intricate games and then endured hours of girl-giggling and high-pitched screaming that would send even the dogs into the other room to escape the madness. She was a saint. A saint with a party-hat and streamers. A saint with a penchant for a good time.

And today is her birthday. A day she would most certainly use to celebrate. Which reminds me of. . .

Mom’s Life Lesson #3: There is Always a Good Reason for a Party

Never miss one. Show up. Or better yet, plan one yourself. It’ll be fun. Life is better when celebrated with a couple hundred of your closest friends. There will be good food there. And lots of it. Preferably a selection of morsels drenched in chocolate. You will not leave hungry. Promise.

Have a theme. Decorate as if you are competing in some sort of Lifetime Television Reality TV Show that will crown Hostess of the Year. Costumes are hilarious. Play games. Give prizes. Laugh a lot.

Stay late. Close the place down. Then go out for French Silk Pie afterwards or maybe a DQ Blizzard. One can never have enough dessert…or enough of a good time.

Mom was a good time wrapped in a flesh and bone package. She was the life of my party. And today, on her birthday, I raise my glass full of sparkling cider in tribute to her and vow to live life the way she did. Like it was one big reason to celebrate. Like I don’t have to get up early in the morning. Like she was still here with me to enjoy it...

Happy Birthday Mom. The party won’t be the same without you. But we’ll still have one. . .