After Parties

 So yesterday we celebrated Little Man's 5th birthday, at Ultra Padel in Little Haiti. Padel is sort of a combination of tennis and racquet ball, which originated in, I think, Spain. It's a mostly young person's sport, as opposed to Pickle Ball, which is for the oldsters.

There are several Padel places in Miami, but I guess not too many outside of Miami-Dade, as few people have any idea what it is when I tell them. But Little Man loves it -- he's taking lessons from an affable Colombian born coach, and in the way we used to have kids' parties at bowling alleys, now it's Padel.

Wifey and I arrived as D1 was awaiting a delivery from Steve's Pizza, owned by school friends she's made. She handed me her phone and asked me to direct in the driver, who was comically grouchy -- American guy who was completely turned around. In fairness, Ultra Padel is in a warehouse district, backed up to the Brightline Tracks -- and so I air traffic controlled the fellow in.

He arrived -- a guy maybe my age, and immediately asked where the rest of the helpers were -- he did NOT want to walk the 100 feet or so to where the party was set up. I had already signed the credit card form, and said "My friend, I gave you a $30 tip for delivery -- is it really so much to ask you to actually deliver?" Joey arrived and the two of us carried in the far too many pizzas D1 had ordered. But I thought someone ought to write a comedy skit about the Basil Fawlty of delivery guys.

The kids had a blast -- playing on the tot lot and playing Padel. Indeed, I made sure to give away 10 large pizzas -- and luckily the Moms and Dads were happy to comply. Steve's has some good pizza, I kept telling them if it was Dominos, we could just trash it, but every time a pizza is wasted, an angel loses his wings.

D2 had brought enormous puppy Betsy, and she wore reindeer garb, not happily, but I made her happy with plenty of pizza crusts. D2 had to leave early to get ready -- last night was Jonathan's work holiday party on Brickell -- this am she said it was a lot of fun, but the after party lasted until 2.

Funny -- we ALSO had an after party -- I helped schlep the party loot back to D1 and Joey's house -- but we got home at 9. By 2 am, I had already been sleeping for 4 hours, in time to wake up for 1, and resume my sleep shift. I miss being able to sleep a solid 8 hours straight...

But Little Man loved his gifts, especially the Transformer toys, which Joey spent a LOT of time assembling. I told him he was a better Dad than I -- if my kid got toys requiring that much work, they would have mysteriously disappeared overnight.

D1 lit the shabbos candles, and we said the prayers. It was exquisite.

Tomorrow the birthday fun continues. Dana turned the big 6-oh, and Eric is hosting 65 people at Prezzo's in Boca tomorrow at 11. We're fetching Joelle and Kenny, and now may have another 2 carpoolers as well -- Mike and Loni are attending as well. Mike will let me know if our SUV will be 2 or 3 couples up to the westauwant, as Little Man calls eateries.

5 years. It's really true that time flies when you have grandkids. Just yesterday we were gathered at Holtz Children's, under Uncle Barry's watchful CMO eye, when D1 made us grandparents.

5 years now seems like 1 year to my younger self. My younger self may have enjoyed an after party until 2 am. Now I like the earlier type.