Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

For the past several years, our friend The Paper had been planning a New Year's Eve party at a nearby hotel. This year she couldn't do it, so The Gryphon and I put our heads together with The White Rabbit and threw a party at The White Rabbit's place.

It went extremely well, but when we arrived at The White Rabbit's on Saturday there was a lot to do yet. Two house guests, one an old friend from college I've previously nicknamed The Devil's Advocate because of his tendency to argue the contrarian side of things. Another friend was someone The White Rabbit met more recently, whom I'll call the Video Editor because he's well known for his anime fan parodies and music videos.

They had all been up since early in the morning helping The White Rabbit get ready, and had also been up late the previous night doing things like laying new carpet in the basement.

Some of the things that had to be done yet could only be done by The White Rabbit, such as going through the papers on his dining room table. The rest of us bustled around and took care of whatever we could: hanging decorations, arranging things in the kitchen, et cetera. It got pretty hectic for awhile.

The Gryphon and I had planned on arriving two hours before the party would begin at 3, and got there one hour ahead instead, but we managed to pull it all together in time. The Gryphon had been up extremely late cooking, so he took a nap upstairs. He'd prepared a 20-pound turkey, some cornbread stuffing from home made corn bread, gravy and a breakfast strata consisting of egg whites, turkey sausage, Swiss cheese and vegetables, to be eaten the next morning.

The Video Editor and I worked on hanging lights in the basement. He kept joking around and cracking me up, such as offering to use a ball peen hammer to put up just about anything, even when it was clearly inappropriate.

Upstairs, with the help of the Devil's Advocate, we hung streamers and banners. By the time most of the people arrived, we were ready to help them. My Mom called right in the middle of this to wish me Happy New Year's, and I wished her a happy new year but told her I couldn't talk because I was helping a friend throw a party and guests were arriving.

Even though The Gryphon had asked me to awake him at 3:30, that didn't prove necessary, as he woke up to the alarm on his phone. He helped get things ready, and then sat down and socialized with the guests.

After everything was done, it really looked like a party. The decorations were a nice touch, and the lights in the basement added to the festive atmosphere. The table was cleared of papers and covered, instead, with food. We had another table downstairs for snacks, and we had drinks and paper goods in the kitchen.

Once The Cheshire Cat arrived, he put together a group of people to go to the hospital to visit his wife, The Paper. She'd been admitted Friday night, and even though she had been diagnosed and was being treated, she had to remain overnight for observation.

We decided to bring the party to her. The first crew included, I believe, The Martial Artist and The Book Lover, me, The Warrior Princess, The Costumer and Agent Smith, The Dormouse, The March Hare, The Court Wizard, and a friend I previously referred to as The Reg Queen because of her association with Otakon. Since she's no longer in that position, I'll rename her The Genealogist, because of one of her favorite pasttimes.

We brought along a plate with some of the goodies, including shrimp, apple cake, and homemade cookies. The Genealogist suggested bringing her a Happy New Year's tiara, and we each wore one, as well. We also took her two of the party favors that The Genealogist had brought.

When we arrived, The Paper was sitting up in bed, in good spirits, talking to her mother-in-law, who coincidentally works at a different hospital and was wearing scrubs when we arrived. We chatted with The Paper and had a good time. She seemed to appreciate the company.

I don't know why, but I'd brought my camera along. As soon as I arrived and saw her in hospital pajamas, I decided she wouldn't appreciate any pictures, so I kept it tucked away.

We'd told The Gryphon we'd return by 6:30, which was when he hoped to have dinner ready for everybody. But it was still several minutes from being done when we got back, and The Cheshire Cat opted to take another run out with another group of people before visiting hours closed at 8:30. I suggested he take himself some shrimp or something, but he said he'd wait until he got back.

When dinner was ready, it was delicious. The turkey and stuffing went over well, and people also enjoyed the lasagna that The White Rabbit had contributed. We had that with a Greek salad that The Book Lover and The Martial Artist had brought, along with a veggie tray, pickles and other goodies. There was even some turkey left over, which surprised me. Everyone seemed pleased. I thought The Gryphon had outdone himself.

After dinner, people drifted to different parts of the house to socialize. Downstairs was set up as the video game room, with a TV set up in the corner. Pretty much all night, people were playing one or another dance game, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) being the most popular.

I'd always been curious about DDR but never had a chance to try it. This was the first time I was with a group of people in front of whom I didn't mind making a fool of myself. I was one of three people just starting: me, The Book Lover and The Court Wizard. I went through the lessons, and The Video Editor gave me tips.

I didn't realize that they were grading you at the end of a round and didn't pay attention to what my grade was. But I must have been doing pretty well, because when the Book Lover and I competed a couple times against each other, she asked, "Why are you doing better than me?"

I replied that I'd taken years of dance classes, which was true. I had about seven years of ballet, one year of ice skating, have done aerobic dance classes for a good 15 years, took two years of martial arts and have done three years of belly dancing. After awhile, it's like a music major learning a new instrument: it becomes easy to associate things you learned earlier to the new task at hand.

Then The Dormouse made me an appletini and there was no going back. It reminded me of those commercials where people would write, "I can drive drunk" and the writing got worse and worse. By the end of the evening, when I tried DDR again, everyone was kicking my butt!

People starting to wonder when The Cheshire Cat and the visiting crew were going to get back, but when I saw that it was close to 8, I told people they'd probably return after visiting hours ended at 8:30. Sure enough, they walked in at about 8:40. For the rest of the evening, The Cheshire Cat took copious pictures of the party so that The Paper could enjoy it by proxy. This was really sweet of him, because generally speaking, he does not like being on either end of a camera. We hammed it up and posed for pictures.

I also took some silly ones, too, such as The Court Wizard with the chocolate bar the Genealogist had brought, to give an approximation of its hugeness.

Upstairs, people were either hanging out around the dining room table, noshing on food and playing a board game, or hanging out around the coffee room table, playing a different board game. Those not involved in any games were drifting around, mingling and socializing.

I was talking to The Court Wizard about various things while we sat next to the radio and listened to a album I'd brought of Styx doing cover songs. It's always good to see The Court Wizard because he lives in Chicago and we only see him a few times a year. As we were talking, a text message came through for me from a number I didn't recognize: "Happy new year!"

I texted back, "Wrong no?" and received a note explaining it was my sister's husband.

I wrote back and, with The Court Wizard, came up with a message: "My peeps say yo. Trogdor too." The Video Editor was wearing a Trogdor T-shirt.

He wrote back, "Say hi to Trogdor. Tell him not to burninate anything."

I wrote back, "Too late. This party b hot! Styx, board games and martinis! Woo!"

Not until the next day did I discover he'd written one more time, to tell me that he and my sister were hanging out in Zeno's at State College and it was really loud there.

I'd been really good all week about watching what I ate, so I overate and overdrank this weekend. I only do this every once in awhile on rare occasion and plan for it ahead of time. For one night, it's nice not to worry about how many calories and fat things have. I'll tell you what, though; if I ate like this all the time, I'd put back those 80 pounds in no time!

Speaking of food, we had lots of it. I'd coordinated what people were bringing, and in addition to the meal type items, there was shrimp and cocktail sauce for an appetizer, cheese and crackers, chips and dip, and oodles of chocolates and homemade cookies. Pimp Daddy surprised me and brought tins of cookies for everybody, in addition to bringing a bag of shrimp which we refrigerated to have the next day (since the other shrimp offering, from The Costumer and Agent Smith, was on a tray and easier to serve).

The Court Wizard and I were joking around about how much prettier the wallpaper got as the evening wore on. It featured turquoise and gold flowers on a white background, and the gold flowers had gold sparkles in them. "Shiny!" I exclaimed, then took a picture.

When it was a half hour to midnight, I let The White Rabbit know so he could hook up his TV in the basement. He also organized two lines in the kitchen to pour for the toast: champagne for those who wanted it or sparkling cider for those who didn't, like for example, the two pregnant women, The Book Lover and The Costumer.

The Genealogist and I handed out party favors downstairs and soon we were all standing around with about three different things in our hands: glass, party favor, noisemaker. Dick Clark was looking good, although his voice was raspier than usual due to the stroke he suffered last year. He must have been working really hard to get to the point where he could do the countdown again.

"You can hardly tell he's CGI," I joked.

We joined in the countdown, 10, 9,8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....

And it was 2006!

We ran around, drank champagne, made noise, hugged friends and kissed SO's. We even blew "Auld Lang Syne" in a monotone on the noisemakers. We headed outside to open up our noisemakers, which it turned out weren't noisemakers but little party toys. I didn't realize this and have no idea what happened to mine, but I found a llama key chain on the floor and The Genealogist said I should keep it. For the rest of the evening, I wore it on my pinky and called it my Llama Bling. This after having The Genealogist pose for a picture with it.

I also accumulated a really cute pink bear scrunchie which The Gryphon got in his party favor. I got a picture of him wearing it while talking on the phone to The Cousin. She'd called shortly after midnight to wish us everyone happy new year, especially her cousin, The White Rabbit.

At The Gryphon's urging, I also told her to smile for a picture.

Incidentally, you can look at this photo and also imagine our friend Batman, who called earlier in the evening from South Korea.

Some people took off because they either had to get up for work or were getting too tired to stay. A smaller number, most of whom were staying overnight at The White Rabbit's, hung out and socialized.

The Dormouse had been playing DDR all night, and though he got winded from the exertion, he was really impressive. When he came upstairs to get some water, I told him how impressed I'd been with his fancy footwork. He said, "Not like it's going to help me with the ladies."

I said, "Oh, yes. Girls hate a guy with rhythm. They hate guys who can dance."

The Cheshire Cat chimed in, "And guys with money, and expensive cars."

"And personality and character," I said. "You should avoid all these things."

Incidentally, The Gryphon was quite good at DDR.

There were several words for the weekend, including, "disinclined," such as "I'm disinclined to do this." At one point, as he was lying down on the couch, The Devil's Advocate said that he was "disinclined" to do something. Both The Cheshire Cat and I said, "No, you're reclined" then slapped each other a high five.

The Warrior Princess and the Video Editor, who had been playing DDR all night, continued their competitions a little while. They were a lot of fun to watch, and when The Gryphon started to fade, I told them that they didn't have to stop just because we were setting up our air mattress at the end of the basement. We were sleeping down there, along with The Dormouse, The Warrior Princess and the Video Editor. My friend The College Roommate and her husband were upstairs on an air mattress in the media room, where The White Rabbit has his computer and his video editing equipment. The Devil's Advocate was on the couch in the living room. It all worked out rather well.

Shortly after we got set up, everyone else got their sleeping gear out and laid it down, as well. We'd brought The Warrior Princess a fouton and sleeping bag to use. We also had a couple extra sleeping bags in the car, just in case somebody else had decided they needed to sleep over as well. Always come prepared, my mom taught me, which was why, even though we were staying only one night, we'd brought a carload full of stuff.

The sounds of dance music and laughter were soon replaced with gentle snoring as the house guests fell asleep in the gray light of a new year.

More from New Year's 2006:

January 4, 2006 - Still Partying

January 6, 2006 - Collective Weirdness

New Year's 2005:

January 3, 2005 - In the Pink

New Year's 2004:

January 5, 2004 - Shiny, Happy People

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

Musings Index

What do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):