This past weekend was something that I had been preparing for and anticipating a long time now. I was throwing my sister her bridal shower. It took a few months of researching, negotiating, planning and organizing. Which, for me, is a walk in the park. I love throwing a party and enjoy every aspect of it. But, it was also very emotionally draining because as joyous as the occasion is, it also marked the first time I would be leaving Sadie at home with Dad, not only for the day – but for an overnight trip.
The over-prepared planner in me, I wanted to create lists and schedules and prepare meals in ready to go plates stored safely in the fridge for Devin. I wanted to go over all of my secrets to get her to nap, on what to do if she gets super cranky… but somewhere deeper than my control freak core lies a sense of relief that Sadie was being left with her father. Not just a babysitter, or a distant relative. It was her daddy, and at the end of the day he might do things a little bit different than I do, but he has the same basic instincts that I have on parenting this sweet child and he will answer to her cries and hunger with the same love and compassion that I will. All will be good.
Other than the rainy storm that was making my plane trip to LA a little bumpy, things were going smoothly. Sadie was in a happy mood that morning as they dropped me off at the Oakland Airport. And surprisingly, I wasn’t feeling sad about leaving her, I was feeling excited for her and her dad to have some special time together and I was excited to see my family and friends in LA. Plus my flight was totally empty. Seriously, there were only 20 people on the flight!
The flight from SF to LA is a quick one and before I knew it, we were making our bumpy decent into Burbank. Until… we seemed to be heading back up toward the sky rather than the airport. No biggie, probably another plane coming in and we have to do a little loopy-loo around the sky and try again. That happens often. 10 mins later I’m thinking, hope we land soon – my brother is probably already there waiting for me. 20 mins later I’m thinking, holy shit we’ve been hijacked! Soon after that, the captain makes an announcement… “Ok, folks, looks like the storm in Burbank was too low, so we had to redirect to Vegas. We’ll be refueling there, and then we’ll see what we can do about getting you folks to your destination. We’ll be landing in Vegas in about 10 minutes.”
WHAT!!!???!!! SERIOUSLY!!??? IS THIS A JOKE??!! Nope, it wasn’t. Picture me in the skies high about the Nevada desert turning on my iPhone trying to desperately get a signal so I can A) call my brother and tell him to stop going in circles around the airport cuz I ain’t arriving anytime soon. B) Call my Mom and tell her she’s going to have to figure out how to throw Jamie’s bridal shower without me because I’m in Vegas and the shower starts in an hour. C) Call my husband and child to let them know Mommy is in Vegas!
I honestly felt like I was going to barf. I was so stressed out, and felt like I was letting so many people down. And I felt powerless to fix it. I began imagining scenarios where I dash out of the airport and rent a convertible and drive like a bat out of hell from Las Vegas and show up at my sister’s bridal shower that I’m throwing just as they are sweeping the remnants of cake off the floor.
Thankfully, there was another flight leaving there in an hour and it would take one hour to get to LA. That, was my best bet and I took it, and I made it to the shower. An hour and a half late. I fluffed my hair in the car on the way over, put some lipstick on and shook it off. Came in, set up all the decorations I had while all the guests were already there, but whatever. I made it. Thank god. And HUGE thanks to my mom, Stephi and Jolie who really came through in my time of despair and made the place look and sound great. I think I would’ve had a nervous breakdown if it hadn’t been for their help.
The shower was thrown at El Tres Inn in Silverlake & the amazing ombre cake and cupcakes were done by my super talented friend Jolie who throws amazing parties. Check out her son’s birthday party featured on Apartment Therapy.
So despite the stress of the morning, the party was a success and a blast. And my sister, Jamie felt very special and loved which is all I could have ever hoped for. And I guess the silver lining of the fiasco was that I was so preoccupied with the stress of the day, that I didn’t have time to be sad about missing Sadie.
After we cleaned up after the party I found myself with my 4 original family members: my mom, dad, brother and sister. I don’t think it’s been just the 5 of us since before I was married. We went out to eat a beautiful dinner together, and it was wonderful. I do have to admit though, it was very weird going out to eat and not requesting a high chair or having to feed someone else before I even get to touch my meal. I felt so strange and almost clumsy having my hands all to myself. I’m so used to holding a baby or pushing a stroller. My poor hands didn’t know what to do with themselves. I tried to shove them in my pockets or grip onto my purse straps to give them some sort of purpose.
That evening my brother, sister and I got in our pj’s and got some beer and sat up watching a movie together until it was bedtime for this mama. I gleefully cozied up in my brother’s futon for the night knowing not only would I be reunited with hubby and baby in the morning, but also knowing that I had no crying baby to wake up to 14 times a night. Ironically enough, I still woke up naturally at her usual waking times. Apparently, after a year and half of not sleeping even one complete night through, it’s hard to bounce back to non-parent sleep habits, i.e. sleeping good.
I also wanted to throw in a HUGE congrats to my dear friend Stephi who ran the LA Marathon this weekend! Get it gurl!
