Wednesday, April 4, 2012

downside of divorce

One of the downsides of divorce, and there are many, is the grandchild's birthday party with all the exes present.  I am sitting on the floor wrapping a seven-foot puzzle in paper decorated with puppies in birthday hats and wishing the day was just a vague unpleasant memory.  Dave's daughter's son is turning four years old today and it's a train theme party.

I like Dave's grandkids.  They are gregarious and wildly observant and talk smart.  Joshua, the four-year-old has indicated he does not want old people at his party, who can blame him, we rarely say or do anything interesting.  Sorry, Josh, we showed up anyway and I am being handed a piece of blue Thomas the Train birthday cake and I didn't even get a yellow window.  The children have paper black lumps of coal taped to their chests and they are crab-racing across the living room carpet and pasting them on a cut-out train on the opposite wall.  Surely they will crash, I think, crying and bellowing will fill the room. That doesn't happen but there are a few tears when one little boy wins no races, not even one.

I am sitting next to Dave's ex-wife's new husband and he is wearing thin Italian black leather loafers with little tassels on them. He is a pleasant gentleman but he dresses like a pimp, albeit a very successful pimp.  "I would never make you wear shoes like that," I whisper to the big guy and he looks genuinely relieved.


 The former wife, a woman who treated my Dave shabbily and unkindly, is resplendent in a red blazer with a ruffled red and white skirt and matching white canvas boat shoes. She has let her white hair grow long, half-way down her back and held back with a red ribbon. She looks like a giant candy cane. "And I," say I patting Dave's hand, "will never buy a skirt like that."  God, I'm good at catty.

2 comments:

AmySueRose said...

Thats funny about the little tyke not wanting old people at his party. And speaking of old people would you quit changing the format and colors cause you are confusing me.

dawn marie giegerich said...

I know! God, almighty I know! I am totally lost in advanced templates and I am seriously confused and crazy.