It’s a new week, and I finally feel like myself again. The only time I have an unstable mind is when I wake up between two and four every night. All the thoughts I push to the back of my mind come flooding back, and I have trouble falling asleep for another hour or two. Other than that, I’m okay, more or less. All it took was a housewarming party and a weekend of no worries.
Trolley and I started preparations on Friday. We were expecting 14 people (with three not drinking) and we got that exactly — Pat, Jen, Jeff, Pita, Mike, Iain, Aaron, Karen, Kat, Sebastien, Eric, Jen, Trolley, and I. In all, we had four bottles of Keith’s (left over from poker night last week), three bottles of wine, a 12 of Corona, and two 5-Liter Kegs of Grolsch. In addition to this, Aaron ended up bringing six more Keith’s, while Mike gave me a mickey of Smirnoff, and Pita supplied a 12 of Blueu (the distinguished Quebec variant of Blue). A few major drinkers powered through the alcohol, and while we initially believed ourselves to be overstocked, we ended up with only a few Blue and the wine.
It was a pretty good mix of people. While I was grilling burgers on the new barbeque, people were mingling, hanging out on the couches, catching up on hockey on TV. Some were even soaking up the sun in my little back yard/patio, which has an accommodating set of stairs and a few lawn chairs. There wasn’t as much segregation, and I think that Aaron, Trolley, and Pat helped blend the two (and a half) groups a bit. For a successful party, I’m always sure to have all three in attendance. To my surprise, we all ended up playing some four-player Gamecube games towards the end of the night, something I wasn’t sure that everyone was interested in.
All-in-all, it was a good party, even if I was too busy running around, making sure everyone was well fed and thoroughly drunk, to hang out with my guests. I even got a few housewarming gifts. Trolley and I built the barbeque Pat gave us in time for the party, and Iain got me a nice set of crystal low balls (which have a nice weight to them, but need to be hand washed). Aaron gave me a set of six solar-charged patio lanterns that really make my yard stand out from the rest. I couldn’t ask for more.
Pita crashed that night, but not before I got him burned for the first time. I think his mind was a little too rigid, and he was analyzing things a little too much to be able to relax and enjoy it. He stayed for the rest of Sunday, and we played the old Gamecube games we used to enjoy back when we were still living together. I had such a good time, that I was able to really forget about everything else that’s going on right now. It was like a little gettaway in my own house.
I needed this weekend.