The Party's Over . . .

The housewarming, that is. It was really more of an open house, but just enough people showed up and hung out. Unfortunately, I'd been so paranoid about how many people were going to come that I had way more food and beer than necessary and have huge amounts of leftovers now. Better too much than too little, I guess. At least I won't have to cook for a while. If you missed it, here's what you missed. It was a kind of Six Degrees party in some ways.

All the out-of-towners showed up early: Missy and Lou arrived first, before I'd even gotten into my party clothes, Missy bearing baked goods as usual: a fab chocolate bundt cake in one of those cathedral pans from Williams Sonoma; swirled chocolate chip cookies, and brownies. Yum! Missy is a kick-butt baker, better than I'll ever be and about neck and neck with S'Mel, which is saying something. Missy and I discovered a while back that we had been at Chatham College at about the same time; when I was a student, her step-mom was teaching there, and she lived on the little street behind the campus. We undoubtedly ran into each other at some point.

Jen and Rich showed up on the heels of Marcia and Val, then Victoria, whom I hadn't seen in about four years arrived, and Glo and Kath. Roz and Eva somehow missed each other at their rendezvous but finally made it and got to meet Victoria, who's lived on the same street at opposite ends of the same block for probably 20 years, at least. Roz, bless her heart, brought a ton of taramosalata, which we'll have to recycle for the writing group. Jen DeMerrit arrived about eight with Yvonne right behind her, when everyone but Rich and Jen were gone. Yvonne drove in from Brooklyn, flew in, took a look around and flew out, but we had a fun chat with the two Jennifers & Rich. The two Jennifers discovered that we shared time in the trenches at Tori Rowan's TK writing group.

Marcia and Lou immediately launched into cigar and scotch talk, as I suspected they would. There was much gratifying oohing and ahing, which makes all the backaches worth it. The folks who had seen it on moving day, when there was a huge pile of nasty carpet in one corner and nothing but primer on the walls and boxes everywhere, were duly amazed at the transformation. So am I. The only criticism was the fan pull in the kitchen. Lou kept getting smacked in the head by it and and Rich actually backed me into the kitchen underneath it and said, "Oh, I see why you didn't notice." I'm the only one who doesn't have to dodge it. Revenge of the short people.

Peri called to cancel because Adam had 102 degree fever. Eva and Peri know each other independently of me because they went to cabaret camp together and were planning a show at one point. Laurie was stuck at school dealing with a flood at the building (the joys of being second in command). I wonder if she'd remember Missy and her step-mother, since we went to school together but Laurie was a year behind me? Val and Missy bonded over childhoods in Pennsylvania. Dr. Em apparently became "embroiled" in something or other, she said, and missed the chance to discover who she might have known in a previous life. At some point in the evening, about when I was cleaning up with Rich and Jen's help, Highfield called from somewhere in the boonies of Wisconsin, probably, because his cell was so garbled the only way I knew it was him was the caller ID. My cousin DeeDee also called in the middle of it everything.

And I got beautiful and yummy prezzies! Victoria brought me a beautiful glass mosaic votive holder in blue. Val bought me two beautiful rocks glasses. Marcia bought me a bottle of the amazing tequila she found in Santa Fe. And Roz brought a great bottle of Kentucky Bourbon (which I suspect I'll feed to Eva). Someone, I suspect it was Yvonne, left me a bottle of overproof Jamaican rum. Hmm, what was my first clue it was Yvonne? That she's Jamaican, or that the card on it said "Jude" (her boyfriend's name)? Not that I mind recycled gifts.

And, wow, do I need a bigger fridge, or what? It's all of 4'9" high, shorter than I am. If it weren't for a deep sink and a giant red washtub and six bags of ice, I'd have been serving warm beer and room-temp soda. That pink sign on the freezer door says:

A fun time was had by all, I think. I'm looking forward to much smaller dinner parties and cocktail hours though.  Hopefully, there will be less prep and hangover involved, in case you wondered what the pulsing red rays on my icon meant.

Comments

[Em]

It sounds like you had a great time! I'm glad it went well! Feel better soon.

[Your Last Friend in Canada]

Sorry I missed it, looks like a good time was had by all. I saw a housewarming gift I thought you would like, however, I'm working on trying to figure out how to send it without it arriving in about a zillion pieces. I may have to look around somemore for something more "shipping friendly".