On Saturday, we went to Morgan Hill. The occasion was a birthday party for their four-year-old daughter, but more than that, it was an excuse to invite friends (parents as well as children) to hang out and have fun together. The “let ’em just play” approach works just great, BTW: the children have more fun just running around than having to line up to hit a pinata, or compete for prizes. And we adults could mingle and gab. That’s what’s most good adult parties end up being like, and after you’ve experienced something like this, hiring a clown or some pony rides for a kiddie birthday party seems excessive.
We left the party (which also like good parties, had indefinite hours) early because we wanted to grab some bargains at the Super Wal-Mart in Gilroy while we were in the area. That was a bit of a revelation on how people spend their Saturday nights. Being from San Jose, I can tell you we spend our Saturdays at festivals, parties, or travelling. In Morgan Hill, clearly Saturdays are for having a great neighborhood barbecues in big backyards. In Gilroy, apparently, you go to the Super Wal-Mart. At 8:30 pm on a Saturday, the place was bustling in a way I’d never seen in bustle before. Families were navigating their overloaded shopping carts through the aisles as the Wal-Mart employees dashed around furiously restocking the shelves almost as quickly as they were being emptied by the locust-like hordes. If that’s Gilroy culture, I dread to think what the people in Hollister do for fun on a Saturday night.
Before the party, we’d dyed some eggs, and after we put our children to bed (an hour after their bedtime, thanks to the bustling “excitement” of the Super Wal-Mart), we hid the eggs. Neil and Kelly were up at daybreak, happily seeking out the eggs. We were afraid a racoon might have stolen an egg or two in the backyard, but in the end we found them all.
And then, for the first time in a long time, we had a quiet Sunday at home.