esrosedotblog

PARTY PARTY

I am not a party animal.

That will come as a big surprise to a lot of people, huh?

I don't go unless forced and I don't give unless, well, sorta forced.

When we lived in Boston we gave parties a lot. Small ones, big ones.

We had an annual Christmas Eve buffet that took on its own momentum, year after year, until the five story house was filled with people.

It was almost impossible to get it stopped.

So I am capable. I am just not very willing anymore.

So, John said that we will have a party for my 70th birthday; January 28.

I got the first salvo of his rationale. It is on a Sunday. We haven't really had a big party here. It is a significant decade. What did he mean by that? My last one? Noooooo.

But I got the point. The rationale was only cover for one of those mandatory exercises that come along in every relationship; not too often, but you know when it is there. No way out.

So I got the lay of the land and quickly said 'yes'. Mostly because he said I could have any kind of party I wanted. Even a small one. But I knew that was just a worm on the hook.

I bit anyway.

I started to make a list. I figured ten, fifteen or so. No big deal.

Well, the list grew.

And grew.

It is still growing.

How the hell did I get all these friends?

No, they are not all intimate friends but they meet the one criteria I set. I decided to invite people who have given me some pleasure in knowing them. A wider net than I thought.

The other thing is that, in addition to my 70th year, 2007 will mark our tenth anniversary in the desert. That makes it sort of John's party too.

So here I am. I bet there will be seventy or eighty people on my list. He is making a list too. Twenty, so far, he says.

A caterer is coming to talk Thursday.

That is new.

When we have had big parties, I have always done the cooking and shit.

Then I could hang out in the kitchen with my close pals—the other anti-party introverts—bitching about the crowd and bantering back and forth over cigarettes and coffee.

No cigarettes (ten years in January--another anniversary). No coffee/caffeine either; for over a year.

No place to hide out.

A caterer.

So that is the general plan.

A 70 year old party animal.

I am sorta thinking ahead to the 80th! But, hey. I will take it one party at a time.