42 Dreams of Arizona Bay

After the party, I did nothing.
No-thing.
I woke up. I read for a while. Ate leftovers and fired up World of Warcraft.

I felt I deserved it.

Number of people at housewarming party: 22
Number of unexpected guests: 1
Very late arrivals: 2
Yummy stuffed mushrooms: 96
Eaten by me: 500. So the math doesn’t work. So what? Never said I was good at math
Leftover: 20
Number of attempts to get people to eat more mushrooms: 40
Number of people who brought presents after being specifically forbidden to bring something: 5
Cards: Plenty
Hours spent cleaning: Many
Hours fussing over stupid stuff, like replacing the patriotic light switch plate before the party: 4
Hours fussing over whether there’d be enough food, drinks: 3
Pictures hung the day before the party: 5
Hours spent preparing food: 6.5
Hours of party: 12. Of course, nobody showed up for the first half-hour. And the only people left (and leaving at hour 12) had planned to be there that long. Bribed with hard liquor
Hours the iPod made it through the party: 11.25
Hours spent carefully crafting the party playlist: 1.25
Amount of time anyone paid attention to the music: 10 minutes
Bottles of beer bought: 72
Pop and water: 84
Leftover beverages: Tons
Leftover food: Not that much. A sign of success. Except for the vegetable tray. Imagine that
Tours given: Tons
Wall of noise: 1. It wasn’t until after I walked back downstairs after giving a tour that I realized this party was working. People were talking. They had their own momentum. They were finally eating, laughing. I’ve never helped hold a party. And yet I never felt awkward, and could always be busy or talking to someone
Number of beers consumed by me: 3
Number of pops consumed by me: 3. Also the number of times that Heather or I explained that it was pop, and not soda, and damn it, we’re from the Midwest!
Number of waters consumed by me: 3. I had to pace myself for the liquor later.
Only cat to be seen by most people: Stinky. Ironic because she is my most shy cat. But she even allowed petting. Mostly because she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t feel like getting off her pillow and hiding
Number of feline escape attempts later: 4, from Merlin. He’s my most friendly cat, and yet he spent most of his time under a bed in a weird reversal of roles. But his excuse seemed to be napping. Ziggy also made a shameless belly appearance when all but two people were gone

I started running out of steam at the end. There was a beautiful golden-lighted late afternoon time when the party shrunk to a core of about eight people, sprawled around the living room comfortably, just talking. Drinking occasionally. Laughing. Mellow.
Then it thinned out a little more, and then it would be a core of four for most of the rest of the night. Until two very late guests showed up. We clearly had no energy left, so they didn’t stay long.

As soon as everyone left, lights were turned off and it was done.
What a good day.
What a good night.
I can’t imagine why we didn’t do this before.

Of course, it was the sort of party where you don’t expect people to break things or spill beer, although one person did. It was laidback, adult. And I liked it much more than I thought.

I’m still not ready to do it any time soon.
Part of my happiness, no doubt, was the ability to show everyone the new place. I discovered that I finally love it. Not just like it, but love it. Maybe it was talking with a fellow new homeowner, who bought a small condo that still feels like an apartment because it essentially is. Ours feels like a house. It’s huge compared to all the other places I’ve lived in.
It’s not perfect by far. I could start listing all the faults, but I’m still floating on the good mood. And that doesn’t happen that often.