I was wondering when/if it was going to come. The woman who hosted the party the last couple of years said that the city "provided everything," but I hadn't seen anything and didn't know if it would magically turn up on my doorstep or what.
Well...yes, it did sort of magically turn up on my doorstep. Or at least someone dropped it off while Walt was painting the carport today (he is painting it in preparation for the gathering).
There is an interesting assortment of goodies to help you prepare. For one thing there is a big stack of door hangers to deliver around the neighborhood to remind your neighbors that the event is happening. It was a huge deal for me to deliver the invitations door to door and now I have to go around the neighborhood and hang reminders on everyone's door again. This is not my kind of shtik. The woman who did it before had kids to send out to do it. I miss having kids to send out to do my dirty work!
In addition to the door hangers there is a tube full of light sticks, which Chico is very interested in.
Two of them fell out of the tube they were in and started glowing, so I decided I'd better tape up the tube to keep any more from falling out.
There was also a stack of "Hello, My Name Is..." stickers and magnets which give you all the contact numbers you'll ever need for offices in the city of Davis.
There is a bag of balloons and pens (so you can write your identity on those "hello, my name is..." tags
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the balloons. I am very skittish about blowing up balloons and am always afraid they are going to pop in my face. I'm wondering if we can get a small cannister of helium (there aren't THAT many balloons) so they'll stand upright rather than just hanging limply..though hanging from our tree might be rather festive. Hmmm...I'll have to think about that...
Then there was this bag
which puzzled me. Up until I was in the middle of writing this entry, I thought it was some new way to tie up balloons, but then I suddenly realized it was the connectors to make the glow sticks into necklaces. Duhh. Can you tell it's been a long time since I had young children in the house?
And finally, to my delight, there was a $25 gift certificate to the Davis Food Coop. The city will even help you pay for the refreshments you serve (but shhhh...don't tell the neighbors who have been invited to bring a dish to share!)
We used to have a big folding table around here, but I don't know where it went--probably off to Ned & Marta's, since they give parties, and I don't. I guess we'll make do with the round glass table on the patio.
I'm officially nervous about this party. For one thing, I thought that "everybody was doing it" all over town. This is a town of about 50,000 people and there are, according to the city's party web site, which I found yesterday, exactly sixty-eight parties going on. So it's fair to say that only a small percentage of neighborhoods are participating.
Also, most of the parties are taking place in the middle of the afternoon. I never questioned the time; I just put down what had been done the year before, but now that I look at how dark it is outside at 7 p.m., I'm wondering if I somehow got the time wrong. Also, I'm having an appetizer party (as was done in previous years) and, as Walt pointed out last night, most people will already have had dinner. I should have made it a dessert party. But too late to change that now. I'll add cookies for those who want something sweet.
I've already had two people call to say they can't come. I'm not optimistic about a big turnout, but who knows--maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Or maybe that "precipitation" the weather people say may come next week will change everything!
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