flamingosMy daughter is having a luau party tonight. There have been anywhere between 20 to 50 twenty-somethings in or around the pool all evening.

The music has been loud and it has seemed like everyone out there has been talking all at the same time. She had decorated the deck with luau-type do-dads, had leis out and everyone had several around their necks. The girls all had flowers in their hair and there are dozens of little pink flamingo cup holders floating around in the pool.

I have gone out and sat on my screened in porch every so often this evening. It sits a story higher overlooking the pool area so while I was sitting out there I could hear and see them, but they weren’t necessarily aware I was out there.

It’s funny to listen to them chattering and flirting and being twenty-somethings. At one point I heard a group of them discussing relationships and how much work goes into having a good marriage. I thought, if they only knew!

They are down to about a dozen out there now. I just went out there and all the guys were in the hot tub and the girls were huddled in chairs on the deck. The guys hollered out for the girls to come over and they replied ‘girl talk’, then promptly got up and went over to the guys. So typical.

After a very difficult week at work and an extemely difficult day today that ended about 6:30 this evening with one of the more difficult tasks I’ve had to do in my career, it was nice to chill out for the evening and have the diversion of the energy and optimism of a yard full of twenty-somethings.

I am surrounded by aberrant and abhorant lives most of my days. It was nice to be surrounded by normalcy for the evening.