And what a party it was…
If you have ever hosted a party you know that there are moments, typically the day before or even hours before that you are thinking WHY am I doing this to myself? Between all the days of preparation, invitations, worries that no one is RSVPing and that all that work will be for nothing and then this year the weather pulls a full NELSON on you. You have strategically picked the end of September because in Seattle this is the time of year when the weather is predictable, air is crisp, the sun is setting right around 7pm so there is a warm glow that photographers go crazy for. Rain, no, there is no rain in Seattle until after Halloween. Well not this year. On the very day of the party the skies opened like a parting curtain and dumped not misted but dumped over ½ inch of rain between the hours of 2-4pm just when we were needing to set up the tables, chairs, tablecloths, cutlery and flower arrangements. Well this of course sent me on a mad search for a 10 foot by 20 foot tent that would cover the tables and chairs rented and already dropped off which I found just a ‘quick’ 30 minute drive in Issaqua's Dick’s Sporting goods. After waiting for what felt like forever for them to get this 1 tent out of the bowels of the basement of Dick’s (so grateful they had one) I spent way too much time looking around filling my arms with all things PTs just love. Can I just say, PTs should NOT go to sporting goods stores…this equals trouble. I rushed back home where my wife (she is in this moment sent from the heavens, other moments not so sure) put on her old and no longer waterproof rain coat and headed out to tackle the beast of a 10 foot by 20 foot tent which the instructions stated ‘easy pop-up 1-2 person assembly’. “I got this babe!” She called like a warrior on the battle grounds reassuring me that I could get all the other 100 things done on my list which included making 24 individual charcuterie cups. After I completed my cups I looked out and there she was grunting away, drenched to the bone and hunched over under the tent, repeatedly jamming her shoulder up into one of the joints willing it to open as it stubbornly stood just inches off the ground. Without asking, I ran downstairs, found my new and much better raincoat and headed out to help. After many, many, many more attempts, shoulder jamming, swearing and wet frozen fingers, together we did get that damn tent up. We felt like bad ass women in a man’s world.
The party was everything I could have wanted it to be but what it did behind the scenes was once again make me so enormously grateful for my amazing wife, my kids and my volunteers who came to support this lovely evening of celebrating the families and children of Transform.
Who are you grateful for today?
