Like, RSVP'ing is apparently totally passe and old-school. People just don't do it. I don't know the new cool way to find out whether people are going to show up to a given event, but RSVP'ing is NOT the way to go.
And, Willem and his friends like to drink beer and play bar games. Wait, no, I knew that one already. But it was nice that he enjoys that, since that's what they did for his birthday party on Saturday.
I learned that Willem can handle a lot more to drink than one might suspect, given that he's really allowed his beer muscles to go lax over the past few years. Something about fatherhood has reduced his beer consumption, oddly enough, and yet he was able to consume far too much on Saturday without spending any time in the bathroom, calling Ralph on the big white telephone.
I discovered that bathroom attendants creep me out. Jen, Laurie and I each were handed a paper towel personally ripped off by a frighteningly trendy, bored-looking woman whom I can only assume actually worked at that bar, rather than just having a weird auditory bathroom-sounds fetish. We all decided that her towel-distributing abilities, while consistent in their ripped-ness, weren't worth a tip.
We learned that while Willem can handle his alcohol, he still gets goofy. My two favorite quotes of the night:
1. (while sitting in a booth, thumping himself on the head with both hands) "Hey, look, I can pat my head and pat my head at the same time!"
2. (after being gently but firmly berated by a bartender because playing cards is illegal in bars - who knew? ... apparently Willem, he just conveniently forgot) "But we've already been playing for an hour and a half." Like the bartender's going to be like, "Oh, really? Well, then, continue on, by all means!"
Which creates the set-up for some pretty horrible outcomes in the justice system. "You have to stop killing people." "But I've already been doing it for a year and a half!" "Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize. Carry on!"
I also learned that Jeff and Laurie have two wonderful, beautiful girls who did a fabulous job keeping my children alive while I went out and played with the big kids for the night. I won't make comparisons of their child-watching skills to my mother-in-law's, because they're all good at that part, BUT I will say that there was no guilt trip waiting for me when I got home.
I'm sure I learned other things this weekend, too. Such as, I can cope and move on from getting 15 rejections and only the one, half-hearted interview that every other applicant got. (I'm still moping a bit about it all, but no longer despairing... sort of in the space between despair and problem-solving, at the moment.) Such as, my daughter talks a LOT. Such as, 5 hours of sleep after a night out with the big kids is not quite enough, and I'll end up asleep on the couch by 9:00 that evening.
But the big thing was, I learned that we can still have a great time out with friends once in a while, without it being in a child-friendly atmosphere where they serve chocolate milk and grilled cheese.
