It's time to lay our 8-year Halloween party tradition to rest. Not for any particular reason from last night, but because of simple host/hostess exhaustion. (That and the destructive head-ache I had this morning.) I'd lobbied the last two years to stop, to no avail. This year, as the final 6 people left just before 3:30am, it was Cha who said "This is the last Halloween party." When she said it I felt a burden lift from my shoulders, but I also felt a surprisingly heavy sadness. This is definitely a life-stage of some sort, a threshold crossed. When we started having these parties, none of my friends had children. Now some of their children are nearing the age we were when we started playing together as kids. Yikes!
Last night went smashingly. We had a small group of maybe 10-12 early, and some trade-offs as more arrived and others left, and then a large contingent of about 15 or so came late. 40 total guests, but never more than 20-25 at a time, which is about perfect for the size of our house. Unfortunately the late crowd had limited food to pick over. Suckers! I had just the right amount of beer, too. I bought five cases and we drank five cases. One of the late guests brought Jello shooters and another made hurricanes which quickly disappeared, as did much of my liquor and some wine others brought. The Bus as Slash won the costume contest, and deservedly--she really nailed it, down to the Jack Daniels bottle. I hope to get pix online later this week (if they turn out).
There was no vomiting, no raucous behavior, no breaking of things or throwing of food. There was, however, a rather intense political fight that lasted an hour between myself and T (dressed as a priest). Some of my PA buds are salt-of-the-earth conservatives, and a handful of them showed up (good to see Sluggo and Spooge Whore on their anniversary). I wore a politically provocative costume, I'd carved a politically provocative jack-'o-lantern, and Cha had her Green propaganda throughout the house, but I had no desire to argue with anybody. Somehow, however, it happened. T. and his wife were on their way out, but he stopped to try my hurricane, found it delicious, poured himself one, and suddenly we were off, and balls-to-the-wall. I started to feel bad for T. because by this time the other red-staters had gone home (including Big Soft Head, a VA libertarian who's smart as a whip), and as the argument progressed we drew more participants and T. felt (rightly) that he was getting ganged up on--even his wife started attacking him. I tried to keep it un-partisan (not difficult given my distaste for Kerry), and focused my critiques on competence rather than ideology. One of our guests was a Pakistani (also dressed in a politically provocative costume) and when he joined the discussion it ramped up even more. T.'s wife started getting pretty heated, to the point where he had to ask her to stop yelling at him, and she said she wasn't, and T. said "Oh yes you were, everybody keeps turning to look at us when you open your mouth because you are shouting at me." So we ceased, and turned the conversation to sex, which is much safer, and we parted with hugs and pats on the back as always, despite our different worldviews.
Strangely, during what was most definitely the quietest of the VIII parties, the police showed up. Three cops approached us in the back yard just after 2 and asked us if we were wrapping up. I said "yeah, there's only ten or so people here and some are leaving as we speak." The officer said "You guys aren't really making much noise--but we got a complaint so we had to check it out." I said I understood, but we weren't even playing music; perhaps some in the neighborhood are taking a zero-tolerance approach after the recent troubles on our block. I can't really complain about that.
So at least for right now we've decided to call an end to the annual bash at 2 York. Thanks to everyone who helped us make the franchise so much fun for so long! The album of party photos we've accumulated really drives home how privliged we are to have such creative, diverse, multi-talented, freaky, super-smart fun people for friends.
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