Saturday, August 14, 2010

Birthday celebration



Last night we went to the 53rd birthday of a good friend of ours, Ronaldo. The party was at his daughter's house. Sweet little place in São Gonçalo. I always enjoy our getting together. Our friends are bold, happy, speak their mind, always bring their kids, and don’t skimp on food or beverage.

It continues to elude me, however – how do you party for 9 hours? I get exhausted half way through and need a nap. But then I come back with a vengeance, taking out the most energetic among us. (But I am cheating, I know.) My second wind is a killer.


As usual, long after midnight Victor broke out his guitar and got the so-inclined guests singing old standards. I was enlisted to provide actual grammatically correct lyrics for the Beatles standards. Everyone had well polished phonetic versions, but none were actually the lyrics. That was my job. We gave new life to some very well-worn songs.

4 comments:

Zoe said...

Those long parties get me every time. I think it's because they start training for party marathons at a young age. A few weeks ago my partner and I were at a 4 year old's birthday party and 5 hours later all I could think was "why are we still here?" There's not enough brigadeiro at those things to give me the sugar high to keep going that long...

Unknown said...

I think I'd break down and take a nap, too! Btw what happens if (gasp!) one needs to leave "early," say, because they happen to have kids that are already up past their bedtime?

And if kids bday parties also go on forever, well then I guess I'll plan to start my little one's 3rd birthday party at 10am! (if anyone will come that early!)

Zoe said...

Given the number of little kids I see still going strong at midnight, and out and about in public, I don't think a bedtime excuse would fly :) I have yet to meet a Brazilian who ever had a bedtime (or if they did it was veeeery flexible).

Jim said...

It's much like when I was growing up: my folks would play bridge or listen to LPs of Bill Cosby and laugh histerically long into the night. We kids orbited in our separate universe. If we got tired we found a quite couch or crawled into our aunt's bed.

The kids here, even the really oung ones, take care of each other and all the adults have half an eye out for any needs that may pop up. It's definitely a group thing. And like Zoe mentioned, I've never actually heard a parent mention a bed time! (But then I see these folks in party settings...)