much to celebrate

Last Saturday we had a party. We usually have one a year but somehow I think it's been 2 since our last one... This year we were celebrating 7 years since we moved to NYC, DH turned 46 and our marriage turned 21.

One friend had googled it and found out that 21 years of marriage is brass, and got us a brass ornament. A very sweet thought - though we both agreed that those rankings need to be reassessed. I think brass, if it's going to be anything, should be 2 years max, and by the time we get to 21 years, it should be emeralds at the very least! 10 can be silver, 15 gold, none of this paper and common metal stuff.

It's always lovely to put all your friends in a room and watch them interact. I'm always surprised that they don't all know each other! Somehow I think if I know them, they must be friends with each other as well. And then the odd connections that do happen, 2 friends figuring out that they went to the same elementary school (both raised and remaining in NYC) Others that they work in the same field. All of them friendly and interested in each other. And in a cultural difference, where in Sydney you invite people for 7.30 and they turn up at 9, in NYC everyone was there by 8. The last stragglers left at 12.30. It was a really fun night.

For the first time, we hired a bar tender. He was a great addition, we're definitely having one when ever we have another party! So drinks were taken care of. I, as per usual, worried over much about the food (though spent only 3 days obsessing, not even a full week, so I would say I was almost relaxed.) I made gazpacho and put them in tiny 2 mouthful cups, and that was very successful. DS baked a carrot cake and I made this so called flourless cake which was more like a giant truffle, that I cut into tiny portions, topped with a raspberry.

There was much laughter and chat, and afterwards I realized that I hadn't taken any photos and in that oddly adult way, I have 12 million shots of my child, and even my friends children, but very few of my friends, and certainly none of them with me. But DH said he had thought of it, but didn't want to, it would make it seem stilted, and I agreed, where better to be purely in the moment than at a party...

What would people not know about you...

I went to a party the other night and the hostess asked us to write on a card something about yourself that others may not know, and then you had to walk around asking people if they were the person described on the card. It was a fun icebreaker. I never did find the person who wrote "I was married at 18" but it made for a good pick up line. Nor did we find the person who wrote "I had sex against the local school fence while it was being built" (presumably at midnight, because it far too busy a street to do it in daylight!) So lots of mysteries were willingly revealed.

I wrote that I had read tarot cards professionally, which one man agreed did not seem unlikely.

Well today I could write that I had testified at a senate committee hearing. I just think that sounds so grown up, and so uniquely American. Though my friends and I agreed that we could not be senators, because while most speakers were cogent and interesting, others were not, and everyone had to be listened to with equal attention, whereas we in the audience could whisper and slip each other notes when we got bored.