Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The Gryphon tells The Pirate to bring "a few bottles of soda"

The Gryphon and I spent much of Saturday cleaning and making last minute preparations for the housewarming party, including preparations of the dishes we were making.

We got done early enough that I should have been able to take a nap, except the phone rang with people asking questions and such. Unfortunately, I'd been up late working the night before, but I figured I'd make it through the evening with the help of some soda. I didn't know it then, but there would be plenty of it, and only some would end up on the floor.

My dish was vegetarian chili, which was cooking in the crock pot. I'd put the ingredients together that morning and let it cook on low most of the day. The Gryphon, however, was doing a blackened chicken recipe with potatoes, sweet potatoes and Fontina cheese. He was busy cooking it when the guests started arriving.

The Dormouse was first to arrive, bringing chips and salsa. My dog, Una, who recognized him, immediately jumped on him. I told her no and directed her away, and helped him find a place to put his food contribution.

Next to arrive was my College Roommate with her husband, their baby boy, and this year's Otakon Con Chair, whom I'd last seen wearing a purple pimp hat. Between them, they'd had brought enough salad to handle a party twice that size, in prepackaged bags from the grocery store.

I ran Una upstairs to the bedroom until she could calm down and then came down and had to help my College Roommate find a place to plug in the bottle warmer, then helped put together the salads. We made three and set the others aside, just in case.

By this point, we noticed that cooking the blackened chicken was smoking up the apartment. Since we don't have a kitchen fan, I had just started to run around and open up windows. I was just going downstairs for the floor fan when, of course, the doorbell rang again.

Una had become upset about being locked in the bedroom, so I let her out. Of course, as soon as The Cheshire Cat and his wife, The Paper, arrived, she plastered her nose to them and barely let them alone for the rest of the evening. I believe this was because they're not dog people. Either that, or they just seemed nice, or becuase they were carrying a delicious chocolate cake.

Also arriving shortly were The Martial Artist and The Book Lover, who had brought raisin cookies. The March Hare brought a delicious fruit salad with strawberries, kiwis, cantaloupe and blueberries, and The White Rabbit brought fresh fruit and cider.

The apartment started to look less smoky, so I started closing some windows so the air conditioning would be more effective.

The Pirate was the last to arrive. We'd known what other people were bringing, so we'd told him to pick up a few bottles of soda, in a range of flavors. His definition of "a few" was vastly different than ours: he showed up with 17 bottles of soda, several refrigerator packs of aluminum soda cans, in addition to a 12-pack of beer and the three bags of ice we'd requested.

The March Hare, along with The Cheshire Cat and myself, helped him bring the contributions inside. Of course, as soon as we got inside, The White Rabbit tried to open one and it overflowed on the floor. We had just gotten it mopped up when someone else needed me, so I didn't get a chance to warn everyone else to let the sodas sit for awhile or at least open them over the sink.

So of course, it happened again. Then The Pirate bested that by lifting his cup to let somebody pass, getting hit by the ceiling fan. Soda splashed everywhere, including on some of our guests, until I managed to reach the wall and turn off the fan. The March Hare, who's much taller than me, kindly agreed to clean the fan with some paper towels while I busied myself cleaning up the floor, with The Pirate's help.

I remained cheery. After all, I said, I have a new perspective on things lately. Something like a soda spill doesn't bother me because I don't have, say, six feet of water in my living room. Sort of puts things in perspective.

Soon, The Gryphon finished his dish, and it seemed popular. By the end of the evening we only had a little left. Likewise for my chili, half of which disappeared over the course of the evening.

We had just got through eating a nice dinner when my College Roommate's son decided he'd had enough. He was born shortly after The Gryphon and I moved into our place back in May, so it's amazing he was quiet and good for as long as he had been. She and her husband had to say their good-byes fairly early.

Before she took off, she pulled me aside and told me I was looking great. She asked me what size I was wearing. I said it was mostly size 8, and she said she hadn't worn that size since high school. This is yet another reason I believe sizes have changed over the years. Back in our early days of college, she always weighed about 30 pounds less than me, and I was wearing a size 10 back then. She should have been wearing at least a size 6. Either we were shopping in the junior department, where the sizes are smaller, or we were wearing our clothes looser, or sizes have changed.

If they had stayed and if our friend, The Punster, had driven up from Maryland as planned, we probably would have needed the extra chairs we'd asked The Cheshire Cat and The Paper to bring. As it is, they remained folded up in a corner as people opted for our living room furniture and dining room chairs, along with one camp chair The Dormouse brought.

The party started with mingling in small groups but eventually became what it usually becomes with this group of people: a large circle of people sitting around having a group conversation. This evening's topics ranged from the devastation in the Gulf Coast and the government's slow response to less weighty subjects, such as at The Pirate regaling us stories from Otakon.

After she calmed down, Una became the hit of the party. At first she tried to beg, only to be continually disappointed, but when the food was gone, she got plenty of pats from people, including The Cheshire Cat, who was very gentle with her, as was everyone. Una's such a sweetie it's hard not to warm to her. She's a heck of a partier, too.

People dipped into the microbrewed beer The Gryphon and I had provided, but not to the extent we'd hoped. This was possibly because at least one of the people we thought would enjoy it, my College Roommate's husband, had to leave early. Oh, well, I don't mind the leftovers.

When we'd had time to digest dinner, The Paper and The Gryphon put candles in the cake for me to blow out, and everyone sang happy birthday. I gave my camera to the March Hare, but he only took pics of the cake, not of me, until I directed him afterwards to take one of me and The Gryphon. It was a low angle shot and not terribly flattering of either of us, so I won't share it here. And it's also the only shot of me on my camera from the evening, me having forgotten to hand my camera off to anyone else.

The cake was sinfully delicious: so rich it was like candy. And she left us the leftovers! I have to be careful to eat right the rest of the day to justify a slice at night.

Throughout the evening, The Cheshire Cat was joking that I was turning 18 or 19. I found this funny since he's only about a year old than me, but I knew it was because I was reaching one of those milestones: 35. Why is it that people panic about ages ending in fives or zeros? At any rate, it was a thoughtful gesture and made me smile.

Later in the night, The White Rabbit put in a CD of lounge versions of rock songs. That was a lot of fun. The Paper went upstairs to lie down in the guest room, because her schedule is such that she tends to fade early. I had deliberately made it a dinner party, starting at 5, so that she'd have some time to socialize before fading.

When the party began to break apart, and most everyone left, we were surprised to discover it was 1 a.m. It hadn't seemed that late. The Pirate stayed longer, and we talked about various things until we offered that he should just crash there tonight instead of making the long drive home. That seemed fine with him, since he had become great friends with Una. They were practically inseparable.

I had work early the next morning, because of extra work being offered this weekend, including a bonus for taking it. By the time I finished, it was about 7 p.m. and The Gryphon told The Pirate he'd be taking me out to dinner, a "date thing." The Pirate said, "Oh, I'll just wait here," probably joking.

The Gryphon responded, "No, this isn't a sitcom where you move into our garage." The Pirate smiled, gathered up his stuff, and took off after some more chatting.

All in all, it was a great party, I'd have to say, and the house is officially warmed.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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