extended party roundup

Okay, for the record... today could, and in all likelihood WILL end badly...

I'm running on just under four hours of sleep, and today's the day that Ma and I are planning on putting up the Christmas Tree...

Yes, I can already see that the more attentive members of the audience can see where I'm going with this...

And given the fact that she both answered and was seemingly still awake when I sent her a text at 2:30 this morning ("Got home 2:30am... Not promising anything regarding time I surface in the morning")... there's a very high probability that somebody may burst into tears by the end of the day. Or, you know, the headlines in Monday's paper may read something like "Christmas Tree Trimming Bloodbath"... sounds like fun, hey.

I'm just going to consume far too much Iced Coffee product and hope for the best...

Anyway...

The Extended Party Roundup Remix...

All in all, the party was quite good... possibly because the small "J-crew" managed to watch a vast proportion of it from the other side of a set of quasi French doors... as I said at one point "This is the best possible way to enjoy somebody else's 21st"...

While I'd originally planned on getting down there a little early, what with one thing and another I rocked up about smack on time... which is neither here nor there really... it is, however, a true and correct account of the events of the evening...

B really liked her presents... the painting (which was proceeded by the "why this bag says Merry Christmas on it" story, or "why yani's a fuckwit") got dragged out of it's wrapping at a couple of times during the evening by B, and while I couldn't hear what she was saying about it, it's nice that she was showing it off... even if she was possibly completely drunk by that stage. She also seemed to like the Minnie Driver/Whatever It Takes mug.

I gave my "no eating after 8:30pm/two hours before bedtime" rule a good and solid thrashing too... since the party only really started at 8pm, I kind of knew that the whole thing would be totally busted, but while I may have managed the "two hour" thing (I don't think I was still eating at midnight, but then I wasn't really paying that much attention to the time), I kind of figured I would just throw out the rule book for the evening... but that may also account, in part, for why I felt kinda weird on my way home (although I'm sure that was partially tiredness and the tail end of my cold too). The food was pretty damn cool actually... various bits of it were presented in keeping with the "carnival/carnie" theme of the night... little cheese and bacon "pinwheels" presented on skewers like lollipops... very small servings of fish and chips served in little "Chinese takeout" boxes with handles that looked a little bit like popcorn boxes... fairybread that had been rolled very flat and then rolled into that pinwheel shape too (pretty to look at, but according to the cool serving wench, supposedly a bitch to make)... and there was other stuff (little sausage rolls, salt and pepper squid that kind of looked like either giant popcorn or else Popplers) but I don't remember all of it. It was all very nice though.

It was just good to see J again to be honest... it's been 18 months, give or take, since he was last here... but he's pretty much still the exact same J as always (and I totally disagree with the woman at the party who seemed to think that J suddenly "sounded English"... he really just sounded exactly the same as he ever does... for some reason there never seems to be any additional "Englishness" in his accent).

It was interesting actually... like I said, the theme was "carnival/carnie", and since I only found this out at the last minute, I figured that I could go with a "cowboy/roustabout" kind of thing, since I had the hat, and a checked shirt (and workboots, which I didn't end up wearing, since it was too hot and I couldn't be bothered)... but J had no idea what he was going to wear either, and when I mentioned the whole cowboy idea, he went with that too... so we kind of ended up as Jack and Ennis for the night... unofficially anyway. However, the point of that story is that at one point (after we'd both explained to people dressed in outfits that I don't remember having any particular theme to them) one of the girls asked me if I was "with the other cowboy" (see, Brokeback all over again), I told her that I wasn't "WITH" him, but we were friends, although I was technically his "date" for the evening. At which point the guy dressed as a clown said to me "So, more complicated than just a yes or no answer then?"... to which the reply was "Usually"... Which pretty much sums up J and I to be honest... "more complicated than a yes or no answer". Not in that whole "are we or aren't we a couple" kind of way, because that's SO not a factor... but, yes... we're just not a simple yes or no answer.

Damn but it's good to see him though.

One thing that was really nice was that just after I got there and B had done the whole present thing, I wandered outside to get myself a drink and J-Mama was sitting outside and saw me and just cocked her head to one side and pointed at her cheek, presenting it for a kiss (and of course I hurried on over there to comply with said request)... Which kind of took me by surprise, since its something of a new development, but a nice one... I am fond of J-Mama... she's a groovy lady.

I have to say that B does happen to know some "interesting" boys... who are either fairly gay, or quite cute, or some vague amount of both (on the flip side of that though, she also knows quite a few scary freaky people of both genders). Although the most attractive guy of the night, who had our entire little separate group drooling into it's collective shoes (which is pretty much a feat in itself given the group in question and our relative tastes... which tells you that the guy was pretty damn hot) bats for B's team, which was something of a disappointment (as was the fact he was wearing far too many layers for our liking)... on the up side, I was sitting in just the right chair to see him wander in and out from outside several times... yaaaay.

Which kind of brings me around to my slightly cryptic comment from early this morning... "it's no fucking wonder I'm still single". There was this particular guy, who I'd kind of pegged as being possibly a fellow Friend of Dorothy (which was kind of confirmed when I watched B "out" myself and another of J's friends through the glass of the French doors... I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I watched her point at first me, then him, and it was fairly obvious as to what she was saying)... and I wouldn't have said he was "cute"... but he was "interesting"... and wearing an "interesting" outfit too... not everybody can pull off a carnival strongman outfit (not the "Tarzan/lionskin" kind... the "red and white horizontal stripe and short shorts" kind, complete with cheesy painted on moustache)... but he got snaps for giving it a go. Anyway, while I wasn't really that committed to flirting with him, it never hurts to get in a little practice, but I don't know if it was because he'd been drinking or I'm just crap at flirting or I'm an evil bitch with no social skills, but nothing that came out of my mouth quite came out the way it should have, or the way I intended it... so instead of things coming out sounding like flirting or just general compliments, they came out sounding like I was having a dig... less good really.

And I'm pretty sure the guy I did manage to flirt with a little earlier in the evening was actually straight (I never did ask B about him, so who knows).

J and I ended up sitting around in his "room" (ie the study which he's using as his bedroom for the length of time that he's actually here) towards the end of the night... around the time that B decided that a whole "singing around the piano" thing was a good plan... and just talked about random nonsense as we always do... and as his jetlag really started to kick in and he was having trouble keeping his eyes open as we were talking I took that as my cue to go. Having said that it took possibly another fifteen minutes to actually get out of the house, since B was VERY drunk by that stage and was not only holding onto me so she didn't fall over, but kept repeating herself and telling me long random stories with no point. Silly girl... I am fond of her though. More so when she's sober though... well... more sober.

So yeah... that was my evening/night/morning... and now I have to get my shit together and haul ass down to the House of Ma for the aforementioned Christmas Tree construction, etc. This is SO all going to end in tears... or possibly the worst arrangement of Christmas decorations in the history of the world.

Current Mood: