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Friday was Halloween, as many of you may have noticed. Angie gave a
very fine party over at Room 16 (the house she vaguely shares with Jim
and Czr). I dressed as Mimi from Rent, which involved
skintight vinyl pants in dark purple, a sleeveless silver-threaded
black top, knee-high black boots, and tons of eyeshadow and lipstick.
It worked well; I did a double-take every time I saw myself in the
mirror, and most of my friends had similar reactions. My usual style
is what Marith refers to as gamine -- oversized shirts worn
loose over leggings or jeans, peppered in with occasional long floaty
gauze dresses. Tight clothes (leggings & jeans aside) are rarely in my
fashion vocabulary.
But I looked good. Good enough that now I'm tempted to go clubbing
(aigh! stomach-turning terrifying activity!) just so I can wear the
outfit again.
And, oh, Earl shaved his head! And wore non-pierced rings in one ear,
and his black leather jacket, and looked much more adorable than
menacing. Taking him to get his head shaved was fun -- Steve, my
hairdresser is a fairly silly person, and he kept waving his free hand
expansively and thanking me for bringing him 'such a toy to practise
on!'. Earl looked both bemused and concerned, but trusted me to keep
Steve in line. Anyway, the end head-shaving result is very positive,
and I'm tempted to try to convince him to keep it that way. We'll
see.
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Saturday was my birthday party. I'm not sure how to do it justice
here.
I got up about 11am and attempted to go to All Saints mass, and failed
because St. Joseph's masses and the schedule they print have no
relationship to each other. Ah, well. I did make an effort. Upon
returning home I phoned Czr to see if he wanted me to come over and
clean up remnants of the Halloween party prior to shopping & setup for
my birthday. He informed me in no uncertain terms that girls who are
having birthday parties aren't allowed to do anything as unfun as
cleaning. Instead we went to breakfast, then hit Jim&Czr's. Czr
swooped me off to go shopping; we acquired far too much food, took it
back to party central, and proceeded to arrange food and decorate.
About 1630ish Jeremy and Rachel showed up for dinner. We went to
Miyake, and had an incredible sushi experience. Someone else at the
restaurant was having a birthday, which caused not only the expected
loud singing, but also a strobe light, fog machines, and various other
disco effects. Miyake is a frightening place.
We returned to Room 16, after a brief stop to pick up stuffed animals
and marshmallow cream. I changed into the strapless black-and-purple
dress that Gretchen recently gifted me with, and wandered around while
people cleaned fruit and arranged tables and put finishing touches on
streamers. I was a nice plateau of hyperness when suddenly there kept
being people at the door -- and next thing I knew there were eighty
million people filling up the house, talking to each other and eating
food and apparently having a grand time.
I was stunned by how many people showed up. I still am.
Czr had to leave for the airport at 2130 -- he's even now in Thailand
on business, and will be for the next two-three weeks. He gave me his
second present before he left, which was a shiny multicoloured cubic
rock of some kind. Much neater than I can describe it. His first
present was the party itself. I almost cried in the parking lot of
Beverages and More when he told me that.
Other presents were:
- A high-personality teddy bear in a USC sweater, from Earl.
- The score to Sunday in the Park with George, care of
Marith and Chrisber.
- A ceramic (?) box, just the right size for earrings, with a
gorgeous sinuous dragon on the lid -- from Michelle and Greg, who are
mud people I actually don't know all that well.
- A book of Chinese poetry (Tu Fu and some of the Sung poets) translated
by Kenneth Rexroth. This was given to me by Ed who was Alaric and is
Tangent, a quite charming man who I don't see nearly often enough.
- The Weekend Novelist from Carl, which is just what it
sounds like -- how to write a novel when you only have time to write on
the weekends. I accused Carl of reading my webpages, which he hasn't
denied. Spooky.
- Last, but not at all least, Trip gave me a perfect black leather
jacket. It's short (about hip-length) and has long fitted sleeves and
is black and smells wonderful. I decided sometime last week
that I really wanted a jacket like this, although I'd never seen one.
The one Trip found is really perfect. I've worn it every day.
I'm overwhelmed by the number of people who like me. I'm even more
overwhelmed by the number of people who really care for me.
It's unbalanced, and probably unfair to them; I don't think I give
enough to deserve everything they give me. But oh, oh it was nice. I
spent a lot of the evening on the edge of crying from sheer emotional
overload.
There's a Keats quote along the lines of 'I am a coward; I'm afraid to
be happy.' I think I understand that now, after Saturday night. It
was almost too much.
At least the crescendo fatigue is gone. Saturday night was
fortissimo. Now it's a pleasant dimenuendo back to a comfortable
level. I hope.
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