Unexpected Saturday Night

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To borrow a phrase from my friend Maggie, today (or more accurately Saturday) “did not suck”.

As I mentioned, I was not looking forward to the school auction. The parents at the school can be a bit overwhelming and tend to stick to their predefined social groups. It’s worse than high school. And the principal’s wife and I tend to be floaters. They are polite, but we know too much. And they know that.

I think what helped this year was the auction pre-party. Let me share with you the irony. The school cannot have alcohol in it or on its grounds at anytime. Makes sense. But, across the street is this little rural church that is used for weddings and such. They welcome alcohol. So that was where they held the pre-party. Complete with wine and beer. The beer was from my favorite micro-micro brewery. And they had food too.

We went there early, paid our admission and got our beer. Immediately, we started talking to the auction head – an amazing woman and partial owner of a large farm in the area. Between she and her husband, they know everyone. After talking to her, the dad of DJ and Indigo’s best friends came to chat. I am one of the only people that he likes because I’m not stuck up or too full of myself. Immediately upon sitting down, he leaned over to me and said “I heard that the teachers are boycotting this event – why are you guys here?”

How could I think we could avoid teacher drama! I should know better by now.

He immediately filled me in – and his wife came by to get the scoop too. She is one of the PTA board members so was concerned about what she has found out. Their neighbor happens to be one of the teachers and her husband. The husband had told him about this boycott. Upon hearing who it was, I told them not to worry about it. Knowing who told them was all I needed to know. She isn’t even a real teacher at the school but a volunteer who teaches kids regularly. At this point, the co-chair of the PTA showed up and was all upset – more angry than upset. The teachers thought they should be given free admission to the pre-party. It was a whole $10 for as much as you wanted to eat and drink. It was hardly a burden. They wanted personal invites. No one got personal invites – so who cares.

I finally stopped them all and simply said, “Please keep in mind that some teachers are never allowed to speak on behalf of the entire staff. That is all I will say.” The PTA co-chair and the dad both shook their heads with understanding. And the co-chair said she would not worry about it any further.

This is why I like this particular dad. He said, “You know, why do adults have to act like teenagers? And why do women when working together have to stir up a shitload of drama like this? Hate me for saying that if you will, but it’s the truth.” His wife simply said “don’t say that” in embarrassment. Both the co-chair and I laughed and agreed wholeheartedly. It is so freaking true.

We then all realized that the auction had officially started, so maybe we should head over to the school. By this point, I’m pretty happy. I’ve had two giant beers. The social event which had sucked in the past did not suck. There was hope.

The auction went as usual. People were being weird during the silent auction bidding, so a bunch of us spent time bidding things up. We all laughed after because we all do it every year, and no one ever seems to notice except for the ones doing it. We got a weekend away in the mountains for a steal. We got some gift certificates to a few good kid activities for the summer. But our biggest steal – the steal we went halves on with some friends – the HUGE lot of non-corn syrup sodas. This was probably at minimum $300 worth of sodas at cost. Together, we spent $200 on it.  And this is the stuff at the local store goes for about $1.50 per bottle. We have at least 150-200 bottles in each half. We are entering that time of the year where there will be gatherings and BBQs. We are set.

And while the oral auction started, we were served the “special punch”. Despite the fact alcohol isn’t allowed, there is some special coffee being toted around in the mugs. I think it was gin with a dash of something unimportant because it was mainly gin. Made for an interesting oral auction anyway.

While I could have thought of many other ways to spend an evening, this was not the worst – or as bad as it could have been.

It was better than Sunday. I went to bed Saturday night with a migraine. I woke up with one. It finally went away at about 2pm – after a nap and about 8 Extra Strength Tylenol and 3 shots of espresso and a cup of coffee. It made for a crappy Sunday, but hey, you can’t win them all, right?

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Topaz says:

    A great day is worth a day of forced rest. Well, hopefully the T3’s made it restful. As for Saturday, well, some people have nothing better to do than gossip. Nice of you to set things straight!
    I really enjoyed reading about this bit of your ‘vanilla’ life!

  2. Vixen says:

    Well, boo on the migraine. That def sucks.

    But the auction sounds fun and seems as if you had a really good time. Our schools PTA is how your friend described some of your teachers. Totally ridiculous behavior for adults.

    I’m giggling a bit at the alcohol ‘pre party’ being at the church…..lol.

  3. Maggie says:

    Ah yes, I’ve found that beer can go a long way in making a day not suck. 🙂

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