Bye Bye Bri; Hello World
So I went to the party last night and had a lovely time (as we all knew I would). I think Trish was right on when she said I shouldn't worry myself about the finer points of etiquette when the party's host/guest of honor is a guy who wouldn't know Emily Post from Roseanne Barr. I'm really glad I went and had a chance to say goodbye to Brian, and he seemed especially happy to see me, as I came on the arm of a very special date.
The party was low-key and casual and relaxing--just what I needed after a long week. There was cheesecake on a stick, a diaper-change and a breast-feed, whiskey worth more than a medium-sized sack of gold and your father's finest cow, and a game that involved Brian forcing upon his nearest and dearest friends random crap from his apartment, including a bottle of maple syrup, a 3,000-page Physician's Desk Reference, and a sweater from one of his patients made out of 100 percent dog hair. I won a used electric hair trimmer, but someone wanted it more than I, so I left with a classy little wine rack instead. Now, if only I had some classy wine instead of six bottles of parking lot Chuck.
I wasn't out terribly late, but I evidently needed to catch up on sleep lost last weekend, so I stayed in bed this morning until 11:15. Nice. And the sun was shining and it was warm, which was a welcome change from the cold and wind and fog we've had for the last few days. To take advantage of the weather and the free time and the discount cards Drea gave me for Old Navy and Banana Republic, I spent the afternoon in search of a dress for the wedding I'm going to next Sunday. Not only did I come home with an assortment of silkies, lacies, and flouncies, but I found the Most Perfect Dress Ever, which also happened to be discounted 30 percent. I can't wait to knock some socks off in it at the reception! Single Girl Lesson #14: It's still fun to parade around the house in freshly purchased clothes, even if the only one there to see you is more interested in licking her own butt than complimenting your new drape-neck blouse.
In related news, here's something I've noticed recently: People are nice. Specifically, sales clerks at clothing stores, fellow customers in line at the supermarket, stock boys in the wine aisle, drivers in parking garages. If you smile and say a few kind words beyond what's expected, people are amazingly responsive. I've never been one to make small talk with strangers or go out of my way to become a five-minute friend, figuring what's the use of putting forth extra effort when I'm never going to see these people again. But since I've started going out in the company of friends other than Ethan, I've observed that small talk with strangers is not the stupid and annoying distraction I thought it was, but actually quite pleasant and informative. Who knew the rocker chick at the movie theatre resents high school kids and the girl at Circuit City was in a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar? Obviously, none of this is earth shattering or life changing, but the fact that you can learn these things about people just by asking is quite a revelation to me. Don't laugh; I'm coming out of my shell.
And in completely unrelated news, I'm watching A Chorus Line on tv right now, and they're in the scene where Val sings that smash-up number "Tits and Ass." Apparently they can't say either of those words on network tv, so every time she sings it , there's a long silence while she points at and gyrates and jiggles the offending parts. Silliness.
the movie version of 'a chorus line' is just silliness period in contrast to the much better stage show. they completely bastardized the best songs! (bet you can't say that on tv either!)
Holy crap! You'd be welcome at almost any gathering if you brought Maker's. Hell, you can stay in our guest room for as long as you like here on Maui with a bottle of Maker's. Well, you can stay for about as long as the bottle would last which coincidently would be about 2 weeks. ;)