Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
January 2, 2007 - Monster Party
The
White Rabbit's mannequin
gets ready to party
Let me start off by saying happy 2007. The Gryphon and I celebrated the way we usually do, with a group of old friends.
The White
Rabbit hosted a party at his place, like he had last year. He had established
a tentative time of 6 p.m. for arrival but made it clear that people were
welcome to arrive any time after noon. This made it nice for those who
had young children and would have to leave early.
The Gryphon and I arrived about 4 p.m. because he was cooking some food for dinner. He had cooked turkey earlier that day, then cut it up and brought it to the party, where he planned to heat it up again in time for dinner.
He had also baked some cornbread, from which he was making cornbread stuffing.
There was a good crew there this year. In addition to, of course, The
White Rabbit, The Gryphon and me, guests included: The Dormouse; The March
Hare; The Cheshire Cat and The Paper; The Court Wizard; my College Roommate
with her husband; Batman; The Treasurer; The Warrior Princess; Pimp Daddy;
The Devil's Advocate; The Video Editor; The Paralegal; The Martial Artist
and The Book Lover with their 9-month-old boy; The Laughing Man and his
wife and two small children; and The Cousin with her husband The Photographer
and their two daughters.
Also attending was a friend I'll nickname The Voice because he's done voice work and has a rich, deep bass voice that everyone loves. There was a fellow Otakon staffer and Penn Stater, who heads the Con Ops department at Otakon and therefore will be nicknamed the Ops Chief. For the first time, we were joined by a fellow Otakon staffer whose nickname is The Bhoo, after a cute, furry cartoon character. He brought his two teenage daughters.
At the beginning of the party, as The Gryphon and I were putting away our food contributions, I was greeted by The Martial Artist and his adorable toddler, who was holding onto his daddy's fingers and walking around the room, greeting guests. It's truly amazing how fast they develop! He's becoming more adventurous and seemed to find the many people intriguing.
I took some pictures of him, but the light in the room was low, and they turned out funny. I have to consult my owner's manual for my camera and find out what I can do in such a situation.
After I had socialized with several people, I went down to the basement to see if they were playing Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) yet. The Dormouse and The Video Editor were playing Guitar Hero but assured me they'd be breaking out the DDR pads soon.
Back upstairs, I enjoyed some fresh vegetables and spoke to my College Roommate. We went out to my car so I could give her the bridesmaid's dress she'll be wearing at my wedding. The dresses had all arrived just after Christmas, and I'd picked all of them up, for convenience's sake.
She told me she'd try it on at home and sent a picture to her sister, who was also getting married this year. Maybe her sister, who has yet to settle on wedding colors, would agree to let her wear the dress for her wedding, as well.
I had someone get a picture of The Gryphon and me, because last year I had forgotten.
As soon as DDR was going, I moved downstairs. The primary players were me, The Video Editor, The Bhoo's youngest daughter and The Dormouse. We had a great time, first playing the version of the game The Gryphon and I own: DDR Extreme 2. Then we played a new version so new that The Video Editor had hardly played it.
The Video Editor pushed me to challenge myself even more than normal, and to go up a level on songs that were getting easy. I surprised myself by doing really well, even keeping pace with him, more or less. Of course, when we play, we don't play to compete; only to challenge ourselves and have fun together.
The Bhoo's daughter was just learning DDR and did an impressive job on the easiest level. She did a good job of getting into the spirit of the game, and I enjoyed joking around with her.
Of course, The Video Editor liked to make wry comments, and when he did so, it would often make me laugh and throw me off. At one point, I said to him, "Don't be funny." Then I reconsidered and said, "Of course, for you that's kind of like saying, 'Don't breathe.'"
I guess we all played about an hour and a half, until we'd passed what I call the Golden Window, which is somewhere between getting warmed up and just losing your stuff.
The timing was great, though, because The Gryphon was just taking hot turkey and stuffing out of the oven. I had a nice, healthy serving of both, along with some more fresh vegetables. If I had stuck to that manner of eating for the second half of the party, I would have done a lot better, but I did end up splurging later, sampling the gourmet cookies and a sliver of cheesecake that The Paper had brought, along with some dark chocolate Hershey's kisses and some homemade bread and spinach dip that The Warrior Princess brought. When you add on the Amstel light and two mixed drinks I consumed, it added up to quite a night.
I do believe, though, that I did a lot better than I did last year. Plus, this is the tail end of the holiday season. So I'll see what the scale tells me later this week, but I think I've done a good job of meeting my goal for the holiday season, which was simply to maintain. Anything would be better than last year, when I gained 10 pounds! It took me until last summer to take it back off. With the wedding coming, I was determined not to let that happen.
After dinner, I made the rounds of the party and spoke to many different people and took various photos. I talked for a while with The Photographer about the space lounge music we hoped to play at the reception during the dinner hour, and he told me he loves that kind of music. I might want to take a listen to a few of his CDs, if he'll lend them to me. I could have asked at the party, since he'd brought them, but I forgot!
The kids were active and having a lot of fun. The Laughing Man's daughter found someone's boots and was walking around in them. It reminded me of my nephew and how he'd been fascinated by my brand new sneakers when we saw him in October.
Meanwhile, the Laughing Man's son was shy at first, due to all the people, but as soon as he learned there were LEGOs downstairs, his face perked up. The Cousin's daughters had a great time playing with the young ones and supervising their play. Seems like it wasn't that long ago that they were the ones needing supervision, but they're certainly both growing up, soon to be teenagers rather than children.
She helped him create a space ship as well as a character with an afro, made from a boulder, which she came upstairs to show everyone. I thought it was hilarious and snapped a picture.
At about 9 p.m., I texted my sister with a self-portrait and the message, "Happy New Year's -- early."
She replied with a photo of a band on stage and a snippet of rockabilly music, the band playing. I replied with a picture of Afroman with the message, "Afroman says yo." So she replied with a phone call to find out what I was up to. She and her husband were at a concert event and NYE celebration in Virginia near where his parents live.
We had some music at our party, too, on a CD player in the background. As always, some people played board games while others gathered around the table in the dining room and chatted.
Pimp Daddy and The Bhoo play a game
For my part, I tried to stay away from the room with the food as much as possible. Not that it did me much good, as I said earlier.
My College Roommate and her husband left before midnight to get home to their one and a half year old boy, who was with his grandparents. Likewise, The Martial Artist and The Book Lover left when their baby boy started to get tired and fussy.
In the basement, they changed over from DDR to another video game and later to Guitar Hero. While The Cousin's two daughters were playing, The Laughing Man's son picked up an extra guitar controller and played air guitar along with the two players.
The Bhoo had brought with him one of his favorite items, a Godzilla head. His youngest daughter put it on and had some fun with the little ones, who shrieked and laughed as The Devil's Advocate fed them to the monster.
The Laughing Man and his wife said their good-byes before midnight to get the kiddies home to bed.
Oversized monsters seemed to be a theme for the evening, as when I got into a conversation later with several people, including Batman, The Court Wizard, and my College Roommate's husband, about the possibility of marketing giant robots with precision guided laser eyes. My College Roommate's husband said he was interested in placing an order, should Batman follow through on his idea to develop them.
The Paper also left before midnight, since her daily schedule of early mornings means she has trouble staying up past 10. The Cheshire Cat made sure to take plenty of photos to share with her later.
The Dormouse and The Video Editor tried their hand at Guitar Hero, along with the Ops Chief, who as they say, shredded it. Even so, he and The Video Editor failed to complete a very difficult song, and the Video Editor collapsed on the floor.
He miraculously revived as soon as I'd snapped the picture.
Sometime before midnight, Agent Smith and The Costumer called to say hello. They have, of course, moved to Northwestern Pennsylvania and were spending a quiet new year with her parents, with whom they're staying until they find a new house up there. We passed around the phone and nearly everyone got a chance to talk to them.
For a long time, it seemed like midnight would never arrive, but then The White Rabbit was pouring champagne into some very nice champagne flutes his parents got him. We all moved downstairs to watch the ball drop. They were having trouble with the reception, so The March Hare and The Video Editor stood on either side, holding the antenna in place.
We counted down: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. And it was 2007! The Gryphon and I exchanged a tender kiss, then clinked our glasses together. Everyone else was blowing noisemakers and toasting. I got a few pictures. My camera did some funky things because of the setting which it was one, which I thought looked pretty cool.
The Court Wizard and The Gryphon joked about how manly it was to wear a tiara, because their wearing of a tiara demonstrated how secure they were in their manliness.
A manly Court Wizard
People moved back upstairs, and those who weren't staying overnight said their good-byes, including The Treasurer and The Voice. Also, Pimp Daddy and The Devil's Advocate left for their room at a local hotel. The Bhoo and his daughters also bid us goodnight, as did The March Hare.
Overall, I had a very good time, with the exception that when I'd been drinking, I started taking things a little too personally when people joked with me, sometimes teasing me about things like how drunk I was or how silly I was getting. The funny thing is, I truly don't need alcohol in order to be silly, and I think I got sillier after I stopped drinking than I had been while I was.
I shake a tail feather
The rest
of us stayed up for a little while talking, although one by one people
set up their sleeping arrangements in various rooms of the house. The
Cheshire Cat and The Court Wizard left then, promising to return for breakfast
the next day. I guess by about 2 a.m., we'd all called it a night.
More from New Year's 2007:
Moral:
Godzilla knows how to party.
Copyright
2006 by Alyce Wilson
What
do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):
