It's My Party and I'll Be an Obsessive Raving Lunatic If I Want To

WHEW! It's over.

Yesterday morning I threw a Halloween party for Dora (the actual "Dora" since that's who Dora, my daughter [look at sidebar] is for Halloween!) and her playgroup. Now I remember why I don't throw parties. Wow.

I realized this was just a little party for little people. Actually, my husband called it: "a get together". Thanks a lot Restless Hubs. For me, it was a PARTY. And when I throw a PARTY, I THROW a party.

Since I started getting ready for a bit late (2 DAYS before!), I did nothing but eat, love, and pray orange and black, for 2 days. Not only was it a self-imposed requirement for me to perfectly decorate the house, have a variety of snacks, do favor bags, and make these cupcakes (which by the way, were a complete HIT and will be displayed on my Stuff We Love blog at some point), I attempted to stay within a budget. So, yes, in my attempt to stay within that budget, I handcrafted all the decorations, some of which I got from good ole Martha Stewart. Can I just say that 15 years ago when I was slinging drinks both behind and in front of the bar, the last place I thought I'd find myself is at marthastewart.com?!

Needless to say, I've been, as the title says: an obsessive raving lunatic for a couple days.

Why I needed to scrub the range top, the windows, obsess about the ornaments for my scary ornamented tree courtesy of Martha Stewart (which BTW, looks absolutely NOTHING like the Martha Stewart tree), and have perfectly strewn cobwebs throughout the house when it was a party for 9 two-year olds and their moms...I don't know. Why it was absolutely necessary for me to go to two different stores, on opposite ends of the town, JUST for "Halloween" cupcake baking cups rather than your average pastel colored baking cups found in the neighborhood grocery store (it's Halloween grocery store people! shouldn't you have those in ALL stores?!) is beyond me. Why I killed myself for 2 days for a 2 hour Halloween get-together party is a topic for another blog and the reason I was slinging drinks in front of the bar 15 years ago.

So last night, after 2 days of this and my husband's "could care less, but trying to put on a supportive face" attitude, no sleep, and Dora not going to sleep, I had it. He says: "what's wrong?! (really?!). I say: "I'm tired, I'm just really tired" Restless Hubs says: "you're doing TOO MUCH!". It took everything in me to not go "psycho wife" on him and say what I wanted to say which was: "No dear, I'm not doing TOO MUCH, you're just doing TOO LITTLE." Instead, I didn't say a word, waited till he fell asleep, and continued to "do too much": blowing up balloons, finishing my ornamented scary tree, laying out the snack table, downloading Halloween music, and researching Halloween activities and games for 2 year olds.

But, I have to confess, Restless Hubs was right. I DID too much. The get-together party would've been fine if I hadn't swept the back patio and windexed all the patio tables (I thought MAYBE they'd want to go out back! just in case!), or stay up till 1:00 in the morning cutting out individual letters for "Happy Halloween" from alternating black and orange construction paper and decorating them with hand-drawn spiders and pumpkin faces (Geezus - I really DID do too much). But what Hubs doesn't get, is that I wasn't doing all that JUST for them...I really did it for me! It felt really good to know that I made the cupcakes and didn't get store-bought cupcakes (the cookies were store-bought). I felt contentment looking around and seeing all the decor just how I wanted it. It felt good knowing that I put in 100% (more like 300%!). Like I said, this is why I spent 10 years of my life in front of a bar. It's not easy being an obsessive raving lunatic.

Anyway, R.H. did appreciate it in the end - I think. But I'll tell you what really made me feel like it was all worth it: little Dora looking up at my "Happy Halloween" sign the morning before the party, bursting out with a smile and saying: "HAPPY WEEEEEN!!!". I'd work day and night for the rest of my life to see that again. O.K., maybe just 1/2 my life!

Plus, R.H. DID get up the morning of the party and scrubbed down the kitchen counters and the guest bathroom. It sure does pay off being an obsessive, raving lunatic don't it?!