Block Party 2021

 

I applied for and received a grant to throw another block party this year. So I did. I booked a bouncy castle and a Kona Ice truck and arranged to pick up many pounds of pulled pork. I created and sent out a sign up genius to the 'hood and we planned to screen an outdoor movie. I invited everyone and sent out reminders and ran to Costco. I emailed people and begged for help. Very few people RSVP'd. I invited all my friends. The day arrived and it was HOT and SMOKY. The fires from California and Oregon had almost blotted out the sun. We considered cancelling, but it would have been so difficult. So we threw the party. It was...okay. There were not a ton of people there, but it cooled down enough to be comfortable and a breeze came up. The food was good and thanks to many of our friends we had a good crowd. I had a good time visiting with people and the kids had a BLAST. So that was a win.

But I was disappointed that so few neighbors came out. And the weather was not great. We ended up not screening the movie and ending the party at dark which everyone was fine with. Michael and I and the kids and Jason cleaned everything up (Suzy was stuck in her basement with breakthrough covid) and then Jason and Michael and I had a really fun time playing light up bocce ball in the green space, which was a super fun way to end the night.

I think I am retiring from throwing the block party. We'll see. It was a lot of work. But we had fun!