August 9, 2005 - Housewarming BBQ

Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

August 9, 2005 - Housewarming BBQ

Una contemplates the terror that is children

My sister and her husband had a housewarming barbecue this past weekend, so The Gryphon and I drove up on Saturday to attend it. It was a potluck, so I made some low fat Chocolate Rice Krispie Treat. On the way there, The Gryphon decided to make roasted vegetables, so he stopped at a grocery store to get ingredients while I sat in the air conditioned car with my dog, Una.

It took longer to get there than we'd planned, but we arrived in plenty of time for the barbecue, which didn't start until about 5.

The place looked great. They have a new couch, and they've done a lot of cleaning, but I couldn't take a picture because I'd accidentally left my camera behind.

One of the first guests to arrive was Dad, bringing chips. Mom showed up shortly afterwards, with veggies and dip. We all helped my sister with some last minute things. I made a beer run with my sister's husband and Dad.

Of course, Mom and I hadn't seen each other or my sister in several weeks, so we were talking a mile a minute in the kitchen. That's when I noticed my sister had grown really quiet and I figured out what was wrong. I apologize for not giving her room to speak, and we were just having a discussion about that when the doorbell rang. It was one of her husband's friends, who'd been an usher at the wedding.

Not long afterwards, a lot more guests arrived, as well. The Gryphon and my sister's husband got the grill going and started cooking burgers. They grilled a veggie burger for me, at my request.

Una and my sister's dog, Emma, were tied up in the back yard. It might have been better to shut them off in a room inside, but my sister wanted to give house tours. The thing is, Una is very friendly and loves parties. But she's afraid of children, and a number of the guests had children with them, some of whom were very hyper and would not listen to directions to approach her slowly. So she would bark at them and try to bark away.

There were two kids, a brother and sister, who were able to approach her, but they were very quiet and well behaved. They already were friends with Emma, so when Una saw them petting Emma, she figured it was OK.

I spent the first part of the party hanging out in a chair near Una, fending off incoming children. But Mom was kind enough to spot me in this task. She wanted to stay seated anyway, so I did get a chance to get up and socialize.

None of the families with children stayed very long after they ate, and as one wave of people was leaving, another was arriving. In addition to family, my sister had invited primarily coworkers, since most of her old friends no longer live in the area. Her husband, on the other hand, had invited some coworkers, many of whom are also friends, and a lot of old friends. It was a group of his old friends who showed up just as the first group was leaving.

Now, my sister had insisted that we drank our beers out of plastic cups, because she didn't want her neighbors to think she was having a rowdy beer party. But as night fell, some of the guests ignored the cup rule and drank straight out of the bottle.

We were all sitting in a big circle, calling out our contributions to the conversation. At one point, we were talking about the early days of MTV and the subtle things underlying the music that we were all too naive to get at the time: like the possibility that Hall and Oates had a thing for each other.

One guy, who had been the DJ at my sister's wedding, and whom I'll call The DJ, reminds me a bit of Jack Black. He has curlier hair, but he is short and stocky with inventive taste in clothing. He loves loud patterns, vintage clothing and polyester leisure suits. This particular evening was a short-sleeved multicolored shirt with a pattern reminiscent of the '80s.

This is the same guy who was kind enough to sit with me a couple years back at the Penn State radio reunion and is on the far left of the front row of the top picture. He was one of the only people I knew there, since only one other person from my radio days showed.

His girlfriend was equally outgoing and funny. She was wearing a cross of Geek Chic and Hippie Girl, with a white peasant dress, horn-rimmed glasses and her hair in two little ponytails on either side of her head, purple silk flowers pinned in. She was wearing a chunky necklace with an Indian head pendant, which she admitted to borrowing from her roommate without asking.

The DJ and his girlfriend were telling us about a party they went to the previous weekend. I don't know if he was DJ'ing or if he just knew somebody. The invitees were primarily gay, and it was held in a really nice house. The party, they said, got really wacky. They went back and forth giving details. One guy, it seems, had started the evening formally dressed and by the end of the evening was wearing only gray briefs, suspender and a bowtie.

As they were leaving that party, they ran into a bunch of frat guys who told them, "If you want to go to a gay party, you should go to AXE house."

"No," The DJ quipped. "If you want to go to a gay party, you should go to that house right there." Neither The DJ nor his girlfriend felt regret for this mischief, knowing that the small crew frat guys would have been outnumbered five to one at the party if they'd tried to start trouble.

The DJ reminds The Gryphon of another friend of ours, The Mad Hatter, who works Otakon with us and has similar hair and a wacky sense of humor. His favorite clothing items consist of suspenders and a flat-brimmed hat. He was Anime Frank in MAT3K performances at Otakon.

This was probably one of the best stories, though we also heard some high school marching band stories from a couple who are old friends of my sister's husband. One story included a girl whose frequent experience was waking up with bottles all around her.

I got a few quips in there, the sort of thing that comes out before I think about it, and then I realize that everyone is laughing.

Other guest participating in the fun included a woman who's a veritable Amazon, with silky blonde hair and a husky voice. Every time I spoke to her I had to prevent myself from asking her how tall she was. Her boyfriend, who reminds me of Dennis Leary, if he'd grown up in the South, was a head shorter and was an interesting blend of geek, alternative and tough guy. He would sit on her lap, telling his wisecracks, while she smoked a cigarette.

My sister decided we should move inside, because we might be disturbing the elderly neighbors. Although the party was just starting, I'm running out of time. I'll pick it up there tomorrow.