Party postmortem

I am pooped. But the party is over.

I’m too wired to sleep right now, although everybody else here is happily snoozing. We didn’t have as big a crowd as usual this year, but since I had time to talk to a friend of mine I only see at this party every year, that worked out well. We had the famous meringue bones, little smokies, these cheese/bread appetizers my sister-in-law makes, a baked brie, and your basic standard party appetizers: chips and salsa, chips and clam dip (my mother’s recipe), veggie tray, etc. Plus chili and cornbread. And a chocolate cake we never even cut because we all ate obscene amounts.

We had a minimum of kid accidents. Laura fell against the coffee table and bruised her arm pretty badly, and also had a soccer ball deliberately kicked into her stomach. She definitely got the worst of it. Will started out pretty shy, but revved up quickly. It was almost 11:00 before I could get him in the bed, and he was about comatose by then—he came in the kitchen and grabbed this huge handful (for him) of crackers, maybe six crackers in one hand, and then took a bite out of them… very interesting technique. He had some major circles under his eyes.

One of my friends who taught with me at Michigan State was here tonight too--by the strange vagaries of academic careers, we’ve both ended up at USC campuses. He’s divorced, no kids, although he does have a dog who apparently needs diapers and is indulged as a kid would be . . . anyhow, I think the kids were a little much for him. The party may have been way too much. We decorate pretty seriously and all. I was refilling the punch, and have these plastic skull molds that I freeze punch in--then when I add new stuff, I throw in one of these ice skulls--they keep everything cold and look very cool floating around in the punch, which is this electric green. I’m dumping the punch out and my friend's just about having a fit. So I can’t tell if the whole holiday excess was too much or if it was just the kids. I think he enjoyed himself in this sort of bemused way. I hope so.

Speaking of friends from MSU, my best friend Lisa (yes, there are so many of us) sent me an email the other day. We hadn’t talked in several days, and we usually talk quite often. She said she’d missed me, so she came to read my blog--which made me miss her too. (Also I’m glad to know somebody is reading this! Of course, I do realize this is made more complicated by the fact that I haven’t given any of my other friends the address or told them I’m keeping it.) Then she wondered why she isn’t mentioned here . . . Well, we know why, don’t we, Lis? So many things that stay unsaid. I wish you’d been here tonight.

Well, I’ve washed all the dishes and relaxed a little and have just hit the point where the punch tastes absolutely nauseatingly sweet, so I think that must mean it’s finally time for bed. I have to finish a grant proposal and start grading a new set of papers tomorrow (or rather, later today) . . . plus trick or treat. Whew. It’s going to be a long day.