Photo by Flickr user A. Currell
I hate planning birthday parties. Not the actual planning part, but the unknown. Living in the East Bay with two small kids however means birthday party planning is a given, twice a year. Two big decisions are the entertainment and the food. Considering the great weather we’ve been having lately I decided to host it in the backyard and promptly found a fun and educational group to keep the kids entertained for a while.
For lunch, pizza was the obvious choice, and not trusting a phone order, the morning of the party I drove over to a local, to-be-unnamed pizzeria. I inquired about ordering a few pies later in the afternoon. “Sure, no problem” he replied. Then I paused, looked him in the eye, and although I didn’t see his soul, asked him whether he was sure there wouldn’t be a problem delivering a few pies in the afternoon. “Absolutely” he replied, “no problem at all”. Relieved that I was able place the order I went back home to make the final arrangements before the party began. I even requested delivery 15 minutes before the entertainment would finish in case they were late.
15 minutes before the entertainment was to finish, everyone was having a great time. The pizza would soon come, certainly within 15 minutes I thought. 5 minutes passed, I glanced at my watch, then 5 more minutes. I called the pizzeria and inquired about the delivery. They checked and told me it was on its way and would take 5 – 10 minutes. Perfect I thought. I planned this just right. 5 minutes after the entertainment left the kids were sitting at the lunch table and I was sure the pizza was coming any minute. 5 minutes later with no delivery I called again. I was put on hold for a long time, and then told that I would receive a call back from the manager. 5 minutes later I receive a call from the manager who blamed traffic and the driver but insisted that he was on his way. By this time, with the kids restless I decided to serve the birthday cake first and, after waiting 5 more minutes, opened the garage door to head out to Safeway to pick up sandwiches instead. Finally, 40 minutes after the expected delivery time the pizza guy came. The kids got their pizzas (after the cake), and it wasn’t a complete disaster. After the party I got a call from the manager again who apologized, didn’t charge for the pies and sent a gift card as well which was considerate.
That being said, I hate birthday party planning because of the unknown. Has this ever happened to anyone? What would you do?
