Birthday party!

So, my fourteen-year old daughter is hosting a party for her birthday. Well, actually the birthday was last week, but we were preparing for Pesach and could not contaminate the house with chametz. Besides, we were headed into the Cities for Shabbat and Seder.

There are twenty-one thirteen and fourteen year old girls and boys here; there are forty two shoes obstructing entrance to my front door. If there should be a fire, the fire fighters will have to enter through an upstairs window and hopefully not have to exit through the front door.

I have eaten my pizza, and I have my beer, and I have been ordered to vacate the premises, not to return until about 10:00p except, of course, to clean up and to handle unexpected emergencies. Of course, the party-goers expect no emergencies; it’s the adults I believe, who are living on the edge here.

I remember when I was in high school, just a bit older than these adolescents. We would have Johnny Mathis parties—slow dancing and necking. Make out parties, you know. Today, everyone brings a loaded up iPod and we supply the base and speakers.

And I am banished out here in my cabin. Perfectly content, and very quiet and peaceful. Until I hear some screaming.