From the Lioness' Den...

Birthday SUCKFEST

Where to begin....

First, I guess I will be positive.  The shopping trip w/my sisters turned out very well for Shelby.  She got some very nice clothes and had fun being with them for the day on Saturday.

Yesterday, however, was one disaster after another.

The pool party was scheduled for 1-4 pm.   I paid for the pool rental Friday and asked if there was anything I needed to sign or know before we showed up.  Mind you, on top of the pool rental fee, I was required  to hire a lifeguard at $15 an hour in order to have the party there.  "Nope, everything is set. Just pay the lifeguard when the party's done."  Cool. 

11:00 yesterday I set off to do the last minute stuff, getting supplies for cake & ice cream, etc. & picked up Leo's kids.  (He is getting his store ready for a huge inspection & couldn't be there right at the beginning.)  I got home with just enough time to grab Shelby and head to the gym where the pool is.  The 2 sis' and my dad & his wife would follow and be there about 20 minutes later.

We arrived right on the dot at 1:00.  We found the doors to the building locked.  No lifeguard present, no one anywhere around.  So, there we stood, A, me and 9 kids in the 80+ degree temps, no shade and no clue what to do.  I called a member of my Sertoma club who works at the college and asked if she had any helpful suggestions.  She looked up the number of the person in charge of the gym & pool stuff and gave me that, and she called the on-call maintenance person to see if they could get the building unlocked.  I called the person in charge and - go figure - on a Sunday afternoon, she's not home and I got the answering machine. I left her a message in which I told her what was going on and conveyed the stress that was quickly mounting.  Finally at about 1:40, a maintenance truck showed up and the guy unlocked the door.  To the building.   He didn't have a key to the pool but was gonna go check and see if he could find one.  In the meantime, Leo called and asked how things were going and I told him I was ready to go postal over the whole deal.  He was on his way and would be there shortly.  Then the person in charge of the building called, and asked if the lifeguard had shown up.  I told her no, and the kids were getting very restless and bored.   She said she had reminded the lifeguard Friday that she needed to be there Sunday and didn't know what happened.  Around 2:15, the maintenance guy showed back up, saying since there's no lifeguard they can't let us swim. Period. Then he said, "Well there was no paperwork given to our office either about anybody having the pool reserved.  Did you just set this up on Friday or something?"  Uh, no.....I set it up 3 weeks ago and paid for it on Friday. "Well, I don't know what to tell ya, but I gotta lock up the building."   

Great.  A party of kids, grandparents that drove 3 hours just for this, and my sisters, and a very disappointed and upset birthday girl. 

We ended up going to one of the parks in town.  Sis 2 & her hubby went to the Dollar store and got some stuff to play with, like a kickball, ball & bat, etc.  After we ate cake and quickly melting ice cream, we played kickball and sand volleyball.  We thought about water balloons since it was so hot and everybody already had their swimsuits on, but there was no running water at any of the hydrants or fountains and we were a long jaunt from the bathroom.

4:00 rolled around, Sis2 & hubby headed back to Denver 'cuz he had a case to argue in court this morning, and the grandparents left 'cuz they wanted to get home before dark.  I had told Shelby she could pick somewhere to go eat after the party and she picked Pizza Hut. 

So, off to Pizza Hut we went.  Leo's sis & family joined us there.  Once again, a disaster from the beginning.  We ordered drinks and appetizers.  The appetizers were served w/o plates - we had to ask for them.  We had to ask for refills on sodas every time we wanted one.  A few of us were drinking beer,  and when we finished one, we had to ask for more. A couple times, we even had to go to the bar and get it ourselves.  As we were finishing up, the ticket was brought to the table.  We looked it over and everything was correct, but we still felt that it was a little high.  As we got up to leave the kid who had our tables brought over another ticket.  He gave it to Leo, and explained about a discount on the 2 pizzas we ordered. Leo was looking the new ticket over, and asked the kid, "How come if you're supposedly giving us a discount, this ticket is $17 more?"  The kid says "Well for parties over 8, there's an automatic tip added."  Oh Hell No!!! Not when you get shitty service like we got. Not to mention the wings we spent $20 on alone weren't what we ordered - but at that point we just said f^&* it and ate 'em anyway.  As everyone walked out the door, Leo & I stayed behind and he talked to the superviser on duty and said that we would not be paying the ticket with the tip added and they were lucky we didn't bitch about the rest of it.

The day ended there, I can't imagine having something else set up only to go wrong.  Her birthday was ruined the way it was by everything that had already happened.  I have done a party every year and have never had anything messed up this bad. 

Today I have been making phone calls and waiting for people to get back to me in an attempt to get this resolved.  Hopefully I will get some sort of compensation on top of my money back.  As I told the person at the college this morning after she apologized yet again - you & I know as adults that things happen and things get dropped.  But tell that to a 13 year old girl who has been looking forward to this party only to have it ruined because of someone's carelessness.

Untitled Comment

11:33 AM, Apr. 30, 2007 .. Posted by davey327

Sounds like an awful weekend. I hope your daughter wasn't too disappointed.

Stress-o-rama

12:16 PM, Apr. 30, 2007 .. Posted by AndeeDawn

Oh my word!!!! What a sh*ty day. I guess this is one birthday that she will never forget. Poor girl! It sounds like the part at the park was fun, though.


I'm wondering...did daddy dearest acknowledge her birthday?

aw man!

4:49 PM, Apr. 30, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

WHOA that was a stressy day! Sorry.
Just think though, Pizza Hut here in Massachusetts doesn't sell beer! At least they didn't last time I went there!
Hope your week is a god one.
Bru