We arrived at 11AM with Alia all ready...she had her costume, her accessories, even her little sunglasses that matched the pink in the elephant ears. We strolled her over to the tent in the bright sun...it was like, 80 degrees, so shelter was necessary. I immediately recognized a couple that had been in Dr. H's office waiting room quite a bit when we were going through the IVF process...they, too, had a 3 month old.
We were having a nice enough time...Dr. H was late to arrive and we just chilled out under the tent, had a bottle of water, and enjoyed seeing all the little people in their costumes. We compared notes with other parents, adored the triplets dressed as the 3 bears, and watched as little one-year-olds got their faces painted. It was nice.
Then Dr. H arrived. People began queuing in a line to see her...bringing to mind waiting in line for the Easter Bunny to hold your baby for a photo op. Only there was a little confusion...it seems that there were two lines forming...people didn't know which line to stand in. Ajay and I stayed put under the tent just to enjoy the shade, thinking if we don't get to have our picture taken with the Easter Bunny, I mean, Dr. H, it would be no big deal...Ajay sees her at work all the time and we're going to see her next month when we start thinking about baby #2. We continued to enjoy ourselves; we bounced Alia around, pointed out cute costumes to her, and were having a pleasant time.
Until she arrived. The know-it-all. The self-proclaimed-authority-on-everything. She came over to those of us sitting and standing under the shade tent and told everyone in a very forceful and hateful manner that the line was forming perpendicular to the tent...those of us in the tent were NOT in line. The line was over there. Even though it shouldn't be...the line SHOULD be under the tent so that people don't have to be in the sun while they're waiting. But she should know, she shouted...this is her 4th year at the party, so she knows how things work. All of us with our little babies obviously haven't been here before this year, so obviously don't know what we're doing.
Huh?! We don't know what we're doing? I thought we were here enjoying ourselves with our baby; I thought we were celebrating with all the other new parents the wonderfulness of having our babies. I thought we were enjoying seeing everyone's little babies dressed up in the cutest ever little Halloween costumes. But apparently, I was wrong...apparently we were supposed to be competing for a spot in the line, elbowing one another out of the way, and getting good and pissed off at all the other people who were there in our way.
That's when the angry lady's toxicity began to spread. As she pointed out that the line was in the sun, a guy said, well, all the people under the shade tent should just move out of it so we can stand in line in the shade.
Huh?! Wait a minute. All of us, who were pleasantly interacting with one another and relaxing in the tent should have to get up and move? So they could stand under the tent and wait in line? But we were here first...why should we have to move?
The angry lady quickly jumped on the support of the commiserating angry guy and began trying to make all of us in the tent go stand in the sun so that those wanting to wait in the Easter Bunny line could be happy...well, maybe not happy, but out of the sun.
Ajay and I exchanged glances. We couldn't believe the tone that was set by just two angry people. We were enjoying our family time, enjoying showing Alia something new, enjoying seeing people that also have been through what we've been through with beautiful babies of their own. However, others were hell-bent on controlling the crowd, pushing their agenda, making a competitive sport out of what was supposed to be shared family time...basically, being the stereotypical Americans that people in other countries are horrified by. It was time to go.
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