Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

My dinner party outfit

My sister's fiancé made a huge pot of coffee in the kitchen. Everybody took showers, and my sister's fiancé made us all pancakes. Yummy ones.

Then we went in my sister's room and went through a bag of clothes my sister was getting rid of. She'd lost 30 pounds this summer, and they were now too big. I ended up with quite a few pairs of new pants. The funny thing is that her cast-off tops were generally too big on me, but they worked on our friend, formerly known as The Bride, now part of The Newlyweds, whom I shall call The Artist.

My sister explained to me that even though I'm close to the weight she was when she went on Weight Watchers this summer, I'm taller than she is, so I'm actually thinner. I was just happy to get some free pants that fit, to be honest. Most of mine from last fall and winter no longer work.

The big event for the day was a dinner party my sister had planned. We all had to get ingredients for our contributions. The Newlyweds went off to hang out at Webster's, the coffee shop/book store downtown which has become the definitive coffee shop hangout now that The Daily Grind has closed.

The rest of us split up to run errands. The Gryphon and my sister's fiancé went to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for their recipes, while my sister and I stopped at the vintage store downtown, the Rag and Bone, to find me a dress for my Stepford Wife costume for Halloween.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I knew I'd recognize it when I saw it. I'll tell you, it was a lot of fun trying on the dresses this time. The last time I visited the Rag and Bone, hardly anything fit! This time the dresses I turned away simply didn't match my internal image for the costume.

We finally found one that was perfect. It was from the 1960s, and it's a pale yellow house dress with an orange and green pattern, with a flouncy skirt and a fitted top. The original movie was filmed in the 1970s, and the Stepford Wives were all somewhat out of date for that time, so it seemed to suit. It's really cute on me, too. I even got a compliment from one of the other patrons.

Some time this week I'll look for shoes and maybe some accessories. I already have a big-brimmed straw hat which I think would be perfect.

Then we stopped at Target to pick up a new tablecloth for the party and a couple extra foam mattress pads for the Newlyweds. My sister only had one spare bed, so what they'd done the previous night was pile up a lot of thick blankets on the living room floor to create a sort of cushion. The Newlyweds said they found it very comfortable.

Back at the apartment, The Gryphon and my sister's fiancé were already hard at work, fixing their dishes. My sister and her fiancé were contributing lasagna. They were making two: one with turkey and one without. The Gryphon and I were making pasta Putanesca from a recipe book I have called the Vegetarian Express.

I modeled my Stepford Wife dress for The Gryphon, and he approved. He pointed out how ironic it was that while my sister and I were buying me a dress to be a Stepford Wife, the men were home cooking!

I helped my sister around the apartment, cleaning up, making beds, et cetera. I also managed to knock over a watering can in the bedroom, but we soaked it up with some spare towels.

And then everything was ready, and we had a couple hours to spare. My sister took a nap. I fell asleep on the couch for a little while and then got up and read. Then I decided to change early, just so I could beat the rush in the bathroom.

The only thing left to do was to make a six-pack run from the local bar. As I was leaving the bar/restaurant with a six of Amstel Light in one arm and a six of Bacardi Ice in the other, a middle aged guy who was there with his family said, "I'm going to her party."

I smiled and said nothing, inwardly cringing.

First the Newlyweds came back with Sven, and then guest after guest drifted in, many of them coworkers of my sister. The food was fantastic. I sampled small amounts of everything I wanted to try and then made the mistake of going back several times for extra cookies and crackers. So overall, I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. Still, I didn't make myself as miserable as I have occasionally at buffets in the past.

One of the guests was a friend called Cat, who named himself after Cat Stevens and is probably tired of being asked about his opinion on Cat Stevens being denied entry to the U.S. recently. Since I'd last seen him, he'd cut his hair short, finally parting with the long dreads which had been his trademark. The new look showed off his facial structure much better, and The Gryphon couldn't recognize him as the same guy in photos from only a few years ago.

We had planned our CD selection so that the first ones were mellow, like Marvin Gaye and then some lounge music and swing music. We were going to phase in some more danceable music near the end, but as soon as the danceable stuff started up, people started to say their good-byes. My sister and I were the only ones interested in dancing.

I don't know if it's just because it's a different crew than she used to have at the dinner parties she'd throw at her old house, which she and Sven shared with an ever-changing third roommate, or if it was just because everyone had had a long weekend, but before we knew it, it was just all us old friends hanging around: me, The Gryphon, my sister and her fiancé, the Newlyweds and Sven, nursing our drinks and telling stories about things that had happened to us, or making fun of a collection of Leonard Nimoy poems from the 1970s.

My sister borrowed my camera, and between the two of us we got some interesting photos to document the evening.

More from Homecoming weekend:

October 25, 2004 - Slacker Tour

October 27, 2004 - Shmeebones & Phones

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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