Another Year

I turned 33 on Saturday and it was quite the nice event. In fact, all of 2007 has been pretty darned good so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. And I got exactly what I wanted: Time.

Saturday night my near and dears came over to share pizza and movies, and to catch up with me as well as each other. I can't think of a better way to spend a day. Charles was already installed on the couch when Don arrived. They then got there first exposure to what is the tornado of me hostessing. It involves a lot of dashing back and forth, which elicited comments that I needed to do a different dance each time I ran past the doorway and comparisons between this a the shooting gallery at a State Fair. Don missed out on this experience at Christmas because I was still on crutches. Instead he just got to laugh at me while I hobbled around.

As Don and I caught up Monie arrived with a beautiful bouquet of roses and a pan of yummy cookies. She is still the best date a girl can ask for. Clan Reisse arrived with the always entertaining Miss Charlotte. She was sleepy from her nap in the car, but soon perked up to explore. Andrew and Connie were hot on their heels, Andrew sporting a jaunty cap which he tried to persuade Miss C. to wear and Connie still wired for sound. Within an hour we had Charlotte dancing in pearls, you really can't beat that for entertainment.

Pizza was ordered, then Lydia and Ralph arrived much to my delight. Though I expected Lydia I had little hope of Ralph coming as he is allergic to cats, and I have a big one. He made it through the evening surprisingly well (or hid his suffering well) and bartended in grand style. They brought a bottle of Absolute New Orleans (profits going to help with Katrina reconstruction). Thanks to Ralph I rarely had an empty cup.

My invite for this gathering did not mention my birthday, as I figured most people knew and for me it was really more about everyone seeing each other. Of course what I didn't know was that Ms. Monie sent an addendum to my invite telling folks it was my birthday, adorable brat that she is (is it any wonder I love her so?). This led to a flaming pan of Monie's delectable cookies. Happily the smoke detector didn’t go off.

Soon Charlotte was showing signs of sleepiness so we said good night to Clan Reisse. After the first movie, Shaun of the Dead, Lydia and Ralph also said their goodbyes before his head exploded from the coughing induced by Callie. We lost Charles to a headache somewhere around this time, so he headed into the bedroom to let the Tylenol do it's work. The rest of us settled into talking when the phone rang.

Jill called in birthday greetings and there was a birthday song from Clan Krellen as well. Greg, Aly and Miss Julia Rose arrived in time for the second movie, and JR delighted all with cuteness. I gave Aly the grand tour, as we realized she never saw the apartment when it was just me living there. Aly was my first roommate and I'd rearranged so she could move in. We disturbed the sleeping Charles for the bedroom tour (the back room had been Aly's) and there was also a quick introduction that I'm fairly sure he has no memory of. At least I didn't pile purses and coats on him.

JR and Aly played as we watched the second movie, Hot Fuzz. I have to say Aly has an amazing ability to multi-task. It was quite adorable. Good thing for us the kids were staggered or we all would have needed insulin shots!

Around 11 we all started to get the sleepies, except Julia Rose of course. It took some convincing, but she was finally persuaded that she would get to come back and play with my bears, and there was a promise of water ice as well.

I stayed up to see the day end, quite happy and feeling very, very lucky.