Meet Baby Jones

Avery’s 1st Birthday is fast approaching. At first, I was not planning on doing anything big - maybe a small get-together at the crib (our crib, not Avery’s *hee hee*) with grown-ups who have wee ones, with, at the most, a few hot hors ‘douvres and some cupcakes.

Turns out, I was waaaay out in left field with regard to customs and expectations. Apparently, 1st birthdays are a big deal, at least in the Filipino culture. Don’t believe me? Ask my mother.

When she finally came to after I told her my original plans, my mother explained to me that 1st birthdays are as important as Baptisms (which Avery hasn’t had and which he probably never will, but that’s another blog entry altogether), Kindergarten Graduations, Grade School Graduations, High School Graduations, 18th Birthdays, 21st Birthdays, College Graduations, Weddings, 25th Anniversaries, 50th Birthdays, 65th Birthdays, 50th Anniversaries and Wakes. And ideally, the celebrations should occur in that order. Specifically. If they don’t, well you’re just weird.

Ok, so on to the drawing board.

First thing Melvin and I talked about was a budget. Coming up with one was easy. Not surprisingly, it’s the sticking to it that’s a problem.

Obviously, the venue/food is what is going to eat up most of the budget. Our house as the party location had been a serious consideration, but major problems, mainly that it sucks the life out of me every time we have a party here, has forced it out of contention. Then, there was the Currents Ballroom at Adventure Aquarium in NJ. Oh. My. God. The place is to die for! For real! I mean, you’re literally surrounded by walls with sharks and other exotic marine mammals in it. We could’ve definitely had a party there, but the lady I talked to said that with our budget, we would’ve only been able to host a party for 10 people with boxed lunches and soda. That would not have been much of a party, right? Right. So maybe when Avery graduates from Yale Law we could revisit this idea.

I seriously thought about the Philadelphia Zoo, but Melvin thought that was stupid since Avery is too young to enjoy the animals. Then I thought about Adventure Aquarium, but I was turned off by the food they give you with the party pack. Pizza? Are you for real? For the price you want to charge me? I don’t think so. Other places on my list were either outdoors only, too restrictive, too expensive or too far so they were scratched off.

After much searching, deliberating and comparing, I finally settled on a Thai/French restaurant in NJ. I’m really excited because the menu looks superb, it has received wonderful reviews based on an independent website, the location is central to most people we’re inviting, the proprietors seem to be really accommodating, and it even appears that we would remain somewhat close to our budget.

I was going to order invitations (I really, really don’t like to handwrite anything) but that would’ve put a serious dent on our quickly dwindling budget, so I decided to create my own. Nothing too creative or artistic - really just plain cards decorated with design slapped on with customized wording on adhesive label. Saved us about 66%.

The party favors have proven to be a little tricky. The theme is Asian, specifically Thai, and although it would seem like there would be lots of options, there really isn’t much from which to choose because I have to constantly remember that not all Asians are created equal. There’s Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, etc. and to mix cultures (speaking strictly in terms of party favors) would be just plain tacky.

NOTE: Ok, so I know that somebody out there is going to be thinking, well, what is her connection with Thai? Absolutely nothing besides the fact that the chosen party venue is Thai. Oh, and also that it is one of my favorite foods (Melvin doesn’t mind it either).

Melvin called me this afternoon to inform me that we received an offer for our apartment - THE FIRST DAY THAT IT WAS LISTED! That’s wonderful news considering the current real estate and mortgage mess. I was so sure it would stay on the market for at least 3 months.

We bought Rockglen (we affectionately call her that after the street it’s located) in December 2001 for, at the time, to us, a lot of money. Today, the buyer is willing to pay it’s list price, which is almost double what we paid.

I’m stunned, really. Not because someone wants to buy our property at the price we want or that it looks like it’s going to go at record time (the previous owner had Rockglen on the market for almost 6 months), but because it looks like this is really going to happen.

This is all so abrupt. We only made the decision to sell 2 weeks ago, and now, we’re talking inspection already.

All in all, this is good news. It’s good news because Avery is here now and he needs all of our time.

We tried managing our marriage, our careers, our finances and Rockglen for a couple of years and the result was nothing short of a disaster. All of those areas took a hit because we were running ourselves ragged trying to manage it all. It simply didn’t work. When Avery came, we knew the madness had to stop. Something had to give.

It looks like it’s going to be Rockglen.

What’s Rangel’s problem?

A 4% surtax on incomes of $150k+ for single persons and $200k+ for married couples? Geez Louise.

We’re getting screwed every which way. It’s never ok to aim low, but this kind of junk makes me rethink that sometimes.

Yikes.

Truly hope this doesn’t affect our situation.