life's too short

Ileana and Efraín had been planning their kids' birthday party for about a month now. Not like obsessively planning, but, you know, planning. We were invited - which was very nice of them - and it was implicit that we should take the kids. And we were going to. It was on a Saturday, so we were going to.

Knowing that the kids were going to be with us Saturday, and this week from Tuesday to Sunday, we decided to go out last Friday night. I had read on Pajiba about The Strangers, and decided maybe horror films weren't that bad if they were done well, so we went to see it - liked it a lot - and afterwards, we went to buy beer at BevMo.

There is no good reason to go buy beer all the way to BevMo unless you are looking for a specific beer. And that's the thing. Last Thursday - was it Thursday? I don't know, really, I'm just making it up now - at the 91X morning show, they had Beer for breakfast (ah, it was on Thursday) and they had Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA. Which they rated higher than they had ever rated any other beer (Now, this show, the morning show, is relatively new, and the people who took it on have had to struggle a bit against the love that people had for the previous DJ. I have to confess that at the beginning I felt pretty much the same. But they've grown on me, and so we listen to them every morning now - I think I even like it better than the old show now... or maybe not. But then, who remembers? God, I'm terrible), and I thought we should try it. So we went to BevMo in Mission Valley, which just happens to be right across the parking lot from Borders.

About an hour later we are driving back with two four packs of Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley, The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon, I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, Saturday by Ian McEwan, All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren - the original version, not the new unedited version, which I heard does the book a disservice by even existing in the same universe -, joy in our hearts, and about 2 dollars. All was well with the world.

We get home to receive a call from the kids - oh, surprise of surprises, since they never, ever call us, it is us calling them, always, and by "us", I mean, of course me -. They were cancelling on us. Yes, you read it right, they had scheduling problems due to another party. A party with so-called relatives - which they are so not, it's one of their cousin's cousin, and they never see this people. I'm sure my ex doesn't even like them, but of course, who is he to decline the possibility to screw me out of a thoroughly planned day with my kids and fuck my entire weekend? No one. He cannot possibly. And to prove how fantastically well he has planned this out, instead of talking to me himself, the coward sends the kids to do his dirty work for him.

Understanding how it is not the kids' fault, I did not chew their heads off, accepted that we would see them on Sunday instead, and thought about how I should have taken the shot back then. Idiot. It's terrible that the one time they call us - as opposed to me calling them -, it is to cancel.

And so. There's us, showing up at this party without children. We sat down and their lawyer friend was nice enough to sit with us and talk football a little bit, which was very nice of him. A couple of conversations were had with them and other people, and that was that. We both felt terrible about the absence of our kids, and a bit weirded out that we were there without them, but we had bought the presents, and these are our friends! What were we supposed to do? Somehow, not showing up just didn't seem like a choice at all. I still feel weird about them, like there's some sort of weird distance thing or something.

They came over Sunday. They will be back tomorrow, and they're staying all week. Will has a long day at school today, and all this week, because of rehearsals. This is going to be a long week.

Comments

[Croila]

Ugh, that's such a shame that the ex is using the kids as pawns to screw you over. I can imagine how uncomfortable it must have been, turning up at a kids' party without your own children ... :-(