Who to call

Dear Beatrice,
Some day, probably when you're 13, you'll host a party, and 15 minutes before all of your fellow 13 year-old guests are to arrive it will dawn on you - "Oh God, what if no one shows up? I'll die!" I remember hosting my 13th birthday party, way back in 1988, and having that same realization 15 minutes (ok, probably an hour) before at least a dozen of my fellow 7th graders were supposed to arrive for a big sleep-over party. The party was so important - 1) because I would FINALLY be a teenager, and 2) because my new best friend Karen Mauney-Brodek was coming. Luckily everyone showed, we all fought and cried at some point during the night, and no one slept until morning. Ah, the good old days.

Anyway, this feeling that people won't show when you host a party, well, it never really goes away. Today, at age 31, I hosted the St John's Wood Women's Club (try saying that 4 times fast) play group. It's a club in my neighborhood for ex-pat American women. About 15 minutes before the party I thought, as I always do, "Oh God, what if no one shows up?" Well, no one did. But guess what? I didn't die. What did I do? First I called your Dad and had a quick little cry, as I did feel quite lame having cleaned up and gotten party food together all while bouncing a fussy 3.5 month old around. Then I called my Mom. And we talked about lots of different things, and after a while, it didn't matter that no one showed up. At least the house was finally clean.
This is a very long-winded way of saying - if you ever host a party and no one shows up, or anything else makes you want to cry a little bit, whether you're 13 or 31, I hope you will want to call me.

Or your Dad, he's quite good at dealing with irrational women now.
Love,
Mommy
ps - I actually blame the weather for the no-show's - it snowed in the late afternoon. You really enjoyed watching the snow fall this time.