The
Prospect Park neighborhood of southeast Minneapolis has inspired me since the
day I moved in more than six years ago. My five-story condominium is located near
the base of Witches’ Hat Tower, an antique water tower which lights up each
night at sunset. Between the tower and me is the Textile Center, housing the
largest textile library in North America. Finally, across the street is the
Overflow Espresso Café, catering to the university community in the area. The
walls of the Overflow are painted copper and industrial green. The ceilings
reveal exposed duct work, in a nod to the artist’s life as widely embodied
within Minneapolis.
When I purchased a home here in
2008, I dreamed of building an intellectual life enriched by inter-connected circles
of relationships.
For two hours on Friday, February
27, 2015, the dream gave rise to reality. With help from my new husband, I threw
my sister a fortieth birthday party at the Overflow.
The focal point of the Overflow
is an oversized ceramic mug that rises above a round bar stool and chairs. A fountain pumps water over the brim, down the side of the mug, and into a
cupped ceramic saucer. The sides are stamped and pigmented with dozens of
inspirational quotes.
Among them: “Opportunity is often disguised as hard work
wearing coveralls.”
My sister, Rachel, who lives in nearby
Saint Paul, has liked the café almost as much as I since the time I moved into
the area. The thought of throwing her a party at the café trickled into my mind
in fall of 2014. At the time, I was planning my wedding, some months prior
to Rachel’s birthday. Later, I shared the party idea first with Jesse, my
husband, and then with Alan, Rachel’s husband. Fortunately, both offered
positive feedback—which I needed.
Prospect Park is considered a
tight-knit neighborhood, yet it is not exactly small-town South Dakota, where
Rachel and I happened to grow up. In the Cities, dedicated event centers typically
require that one hundred percent of food purchases be made from an in-house
vendor—thus upping event prices threefold.
“Does the Overflow ever host
private parties?” I asked the owner, introducing myself as an M-Flats condo owner.
“We typically don’t,” Jeff
replied. “But what did you have in mind?”
With that, my dream died and re-rose.
As I shared my idea, Jeff asked
me for times and dates. Fortunately, I could respond truthfully that Rachel is
the type of person whose friends would go anywhere, anytime, to see.
“I would have the party anytime
that made it more attractive to you,” I said.
“I guess I wouldn’t mind closing
the store a couple of hours early some night,” he replied. “Send me an email
with more detail on what you’re proposing.”
I followed up: a private coffee
and dessert event. I envisioned that we would purchase coffee from the Overflow for forty
people, and I would bring in desserts, a combination of homemade and
store-bought. In addition, I expressed interest in underwriting 50 percent off
the cost of guests’ specialty drinks.
Within the next ten days, Jeff
and I communicated more via emails and phone conversations. At times, the
communication felt awkward as both of us strove to satisfy significant budget
constraints. Yet faith in the idea—and in each other—somehow shined through the
process. In the end, my husband and I agreed to pay the Overflow what was
essentially a rental fee for use of the facility. The Overflow would provide
unlimited brewed coffee, staff time, plus fifty percent off its specialty
drinks and all other menu items. To save costs, I baked one hundred percent of
the dessert items from scratch.
The Invitations
My brother-in-law provided a list
if invitees and their email addresses. I spent several hours adding to it: emailing
my aunt to request my cousins’ email address; looking for email addresses from
other friends on Facebook; asking other guests for addresses of close
relatives. On the invitations themselves, I chose images that would bespeak
Rachel’s life starting from her youth: a piano, a basketball, a French Horn,
and a basketball backboard.
Neither the Overflow nor I wanted
the guests to come famished so we advertised the event as “discounts available”
without stating explicitly the discount amounts.
Rachel’s Reaction
By the time Rachel arrived at the
party, there were 49 people in attendance including 23 kids. My dad came from
South Dakota, arriving a few hours early to cut my desserts into individual
slices. My brother from South Dakota came to Minnesota separately, thus arriving
at the Overflow with Rachel and her family. A local piano-teacher friend of Rachel
and mine I hadn’t seen in years showed up.
Rachel had tears in her eyes by
the time she reached the Overflow fireplace! By the time she spotted me, I was
carrying our cousin’s three-year-old daughter, Aubrey, down a flight of stairs
from the loft.
I entertained Aubrey during the finale of our event: a showing
of a thirty-minute tribute video Alan created with contributions from a dozen
friends and family members. Among other things, the video features Alan and my
nieces and nephew dancing birthday wishes while wearing full disco attire—one
last turn in the evening kaleidoscope of color!
