Every so often the planets align and there is a convergence. A meeting of the minds. Then we add liquor to those minds and make them play Taboo. That was pretty much how last Saturday went down.
I'd been stressing about this for at least a week, but it was 'bad' that Saturday. Mark can attest that I was kinda freaking out the morning before the party. A quick trip to the grocery store to procure the needed supplies and we were set. My anxiety didn't really settle down til people were showing up and I started cooking.
We had a good turn out. We had TONS of food!! Seriously... Between salads and dips and appetizers and drinkies we were set.
I love the first 30 minutes to an hour of any party. No one wants to be the first to dive into the food. Do you break out the games already? TV usually pulls people in and away from conversation. Music usually pulls them together. What if there is an awkward silence? Then I realize that these are people that we've known for years.
I went to start the grilling and all was well. People were chatting. Enjoying themselves. Then the food starts. One thing I love about potluck parties is seeing whatever everyone brings. Even if they just buy something from the store. It might be something I've never had. We had some very tasty food there.
Rachel Ray always says to not make something over the top your first time out. Along those same lines, a group of party guests is not the time to experiment with a new recipe. I stuck with pretty standard stuff. A red pepper dip I'd made before. Some tortilla wrap-ups (which I'd never made, but kinda hard to screw up. If you can make a sandwich, you can make these). Mark made a Mexican cheesecake which is a standard request for his work functions. He is the cheesecake king!
We broke out the Taboo. Mark and I are competitive people. Not that we HAVE to win, but we are gonna give it our all. It was a great game of couples, with Angie & Rachael making a psuedo couple for the night. It was fun to see how poorly Mark and I started out. I blame the extra strength spiked lemonade. I love Taboo mainly because it's fun to see what 'inside' jokes & clues people use to help them guess a word. With Mark I know I can use references from musicals that I might know (which are few).
It wasn't long after that we broke out Scene It. This time we mixed it up boys vs. girls. I think we were pretty evenly matched. Angie & Mark were pretty evenly matched on some clues. I definitely sensed a rivalry.
Some how the year book from our senior year was found. What we've discovered is that Mark had the uncanny ability to locate the visually impaired students in our class. It's his new superpower. It's mutant in origin, I swear.
I can tell you that it was a late night (or early morning) when every decided to leave for their respectively homes. It was a great night! I can also confirm that I fell asleep on the floor while Mark sat at the computer. Lovingly, Mark did not leave me there. I found may way up several stairs and to the bedroom.
More of the following day was a blur, rather than the night on indulgence before. It's been a looong time since I've had a hangover at all let alone one of that caliber.
I posted this @ 7/18/2008 05:31:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
4/23/2008
ROCKIN' ROBIN
cris: you need twitter Jay: So I can say "Poop is coming out now"? cris: thank you for writing my next blog post. Jay: You'll have to credit Gabe Jay: I thought that's what you were talking about. cris: oh no cris: damn. it was funnier when i thought you said it. can we try that again? Jay: *LOL* cris: you need twitter. Jay: Okay. cris: much better.
I posted this @ 4/23/2008 08:58:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
1/27/2008
THAT'S THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET
My favorite Italian restaurant has been Carrabba's, for a while now. I go at least once a month if not more. Our favorite waitress at Carrabba's is Amy. Typically I'm one to look sideways at someone who is very overly friendly. Not in a bad way, but part of my questions it, like... "What're they selling?"
This is one example where that wasn't the case at all. The first time we had Amy as a waitress she was perky, friendly, and attentive as a waitress. In explaining why their steak was good, she acknowledged that it might not be typical to get good steak and a pasta place. But her dad 'knows' steak (I don't know...), and this was good steak. Also she was a bit worn out from playing tennis earlier that day. And blah blah blah... even tho she was oversharing a little bit, no one seemed to mind. She also was more than willing to spill the secret recipe for the herb dipping mixture that Carrabba's uses. I make it at home now and use it all the time.
So after that night we always looked for Amy when we went there. Asking for her, hoping to get her table. But no luck. Until last night.
Now, here is what is impressive to me. She left a great impression on us. She was fun, friendly, attentive, a great waitress and seemed like a really cool person. This was MONTHS ago, maybe summertime? So here last night, she came up to us. Totally recognized us. We told her about hoping to get her again as a our waitress. She told us it was her last night. Sad. Because you rarely find servers that are friendly without seeming fake.
I just find it pretty darned cool that she left that much of an impression on us and we on her that she remembered us. Like I said... that doesn't happen very often.
Best of luck as a nurse, Amy! Come have dinner with us at Carrabba's sometime.
I posted this @ 1/27/2008 01:11:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
11/21/2007
I WANT TO THANK YOU, THANK YOU
It's that time of year. I wanted to make a somewhat cliche "What I'm Thankful For" post.
Overall, even tho I complain... a LOT. I really don't have much to actually complain about. I have a job, thankfully... after months of looking. Thanks Brenda. I have good friends who are willing to call me on my shit. Thanks Mike. You too Bryan. I have a bunch of great friends, some that I've known for years and some that I've only recently met. You know who you are. Besides there's too many of you all to mention. I'm thankful that I have someone who loves me for me, that I can be my dorky self around. Thanks Mark! I have a family who drives me crazy, but I'm thankfully for a lot of the choices that they made when I was too young to make them for myself. And even tho I put my grandmother on the spot a few hours before Thanksgiving dinner many years ago, by telling her I was gay... she still talks to me.
It wasn't anything as comedic or dramatic as this clip from Will & Grace... thankfully.
I hope that everyone has a very good Thanksgiving holiday! Remember, no matter who you are... there is at least one person who is thankful that you are a part of their life.
I posted this @ 11/21/2007 01:43:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
10/08/2007
IN YOUR EYES
There are times when I'll stop and look at someone who I've known for a long time and suddenly it's like I'm seeing them for the first time. Like they are strangers. But familiar strangers. Friendly familiar strangers.
Sometimes something happens and you suddenly see someone in a light that you never had before. Maybe it's good. Hopefully it's not bad. For me, at least, it's never too shocking so much as it is just surreal. Maybe someone who was very straight laced suddenly cuts loose. Perhaps, it's the jokester that suddenly is having serious conversations with you. Conversely, it might be someone you trusted no longer being in your close confidence.
Mark and I had dinner with some good friends of mine. I've known them for years. I'm more friends with Z than J. Only because I worked with Z for years. There was one point in the evening that I looked at J as he was discussing something very grown-up. Very deep. It was right then that I saw him as more than the Good Times Guy that I'd known him as. Here he is talking about education and kids. In between asking us if we wanted another beer. So... it wasn't a 'total' change.
It was a great evening. It was just very interesting to me as a student of human nature to see the natural progression (evolution?) of someone.
I posted this @ 8/22/2007 09:34:00 AM.............Need a link?..........
6/12/2007
ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
So I managed to make it through the weekend without using a funny accent. Friday was an interesting game of phone tag. With calls between Mark and myself (Mark and I? Jay, help.) and calls between Mark and his friend Andy, my phone was busy. Andy and his boyfriend, Mike, had some problems getting out of Chicago. I can relate. Last summer I had my own O'Hare flight stories. Even boarding a plane in Omaha I overheard a TSA mention that anyone flying out of Chicago can expect delays and issues with actually getting on a plane. Not that I'm glad Andy and Mike had flight difficulties, but it's good to know it wasn't just me.
Once in town, we picked them up and stopped by Applebee's for a quick dinner. All I can say about dinner is... to the couple that were sitting next to us, that were on a terribly awkward first or early relationship date. You are a loser and a braggart. Your "important phone calls" didn't impress her. She could see you checking people out as they walked by.
But I digress...
It was a good evening and great to meet Mark's friends. I was telling Mark, that even though I knew parts of some of the stories, I laughed at the insight Andy was sharing about things. I'm sure, my best friend, Mike could tell tons of different stories from when we were kids as what I tell. A few drinks later and we fire up the dart board. I think it's safe to say that Mark and I did not win... by a landslide? I need to practice more, for sure.
I'm not sure what time it was that we actually fell asleep, but at some point the police paid a visit to my neighbors. You might recall stories of his loudness from when I first moved in. Or perhaps stories about how he really only talks to either of us when he is drunk. He can be friendly enough, I guess. Well, in the morning when I hear that police had shown up at the neighbors door, I wasn't surprised. Mark took his friends to their final destination, and the morning went on as usual, with little or no sound coming from next door.
Later on, I ran into my neighbor's neighbor. I told him that we thought cops were next door and he laughed. It turns out it was just another friend who had stopped by and pounded on the door acting like police. Nice... I'm glad my friends don't fake police calls. I'd be a nervous wreck. I suppose my behavior doesn't warrant a police call though either.
I posted this @ 6/12/2007 01:14:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
3/19/2007
YOU WERE ALWAYS ON MY MIND
I consider my friends to be members of my family... extended family if you will. I am fiercely loyal and would do anything for them to make sure that they are ok. If that means helping them out, if I am able to I certainly will. The downside to it is when something is on my mind. Call it an opinion, a viewpoint, a strong feeling, a suggestion, unsolicited advice... whatever. Sometimes it is almost impossible for me to hold my tongue. I'm always thinking. I'm always running 800 scenarios in my head of how things might play out. How they could be only if...
When I feel strongly about something I have a hard time holding my tongue. So, in the case of a friend you care about. A family member... Do you hold your tongue? Or tell them how you feel? What if it meant losing their friendship?
In the end, I feel that my voice has been heard... and I value a friendship more than I value my biased viewpoint. Putting aside the bias, I just hope the truth in what I feel can be seen.
I posted this @ 3/19/2007 12:55:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
2/05/2007
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?
Not ready for football? Well, fine. This is about the other big game night. At least around here. After MONTHS and MONTHS of planning (i.e. I finally nailed down a day and stuck with it) a game night. The cast; Me, Cute Teacher, Jay, and His own cute teacher, Susannah.
It started out with making a run to Toys 'R' Us to buy another game to add to the options that would already be present. Can you believe Toys 'R' Us didn't have regular Trivial Pursuit? WTF?! They had every spin off known to mankind. Well, almost every spin off. They didn't have the Pop Culture version that we were looking for. The original plan was Scene It, and we ended up sticking with it. CT and I felt very confident in our ability to kick some trivia ass at this game. Between the two of us, we were feeling pretty confident about our knowledge.
Dinner was nice. It's fun to meet someone new over dinner because you get to see everyone's personalities a lot sooner. Food has that tendency to make us more relaxed. At least it does me. I had been on kick where I was eating at so many different places and trying new places that something simple like Chili's is almost exotic. I had unintentionally avoided it til a recent dinner with CT, where I rediscovered some of the things on the menu I liked.
Moving on...
We get to Jay's house and take the tour (for the new people) and visit the attic that I'm pretty sure once housed an evil twin of a previous owner. I love the house, Jay, but your attic is creeping me out from here.
CT and I both consider ourselves to be competitive. Susannah admitted she was, which leaves Jay as the least competitive, by his own admission.
Game night started off simple with Clue. What I found interesting was everyone had a very different style of keeping track of their clues. I took the first game on a fluke, with a little help from Jay. CT took the second handily. I think the four of us are a very brainy bunch (that the way they became the Brainy Bunch). The level of concentration at playing Clue was entertaining. I think if a pin dropped at one point we all would've jumped when we heard it.
Moving on to Taboo, this was a bit more of a challenge. I had never played the actual rules with buzzers and timers and such. I think it's safe to say CT and I felt more comfortable when I was giving and he was receiving. The challenge came in having so many things to concentrate on. Getting someone to guess a word without using 5 of the most common words associated with it. I found myself talking very slowly as I repeatedly looked over the words. Then having someone from the other team ready to buzz you if you fucked up. Then watching the timer and knowing the score. No pressure. it definitely is good when you can relate the word to something personal that you have experienced and not even need to tabooed words at all. CT had a couple moments where he goes into what he calls "idiot savant mode" and he is just 'on' and guessing everything correctly. Fun game! In the end Jay and Susannah won in a tie breaker. But I maintain that is was slightly unfair because CT and I were unable to get a chance to tie the tie breaker. Sour grapes? No. Just competitive. :-) I'm sure there will be a rematch.
Finally, it was Scene It's turn. I was definitely over-confident going in to this game. CT and I started out with a good lead on the game board but came to a screeching halt when we couldn't answer the final question. What I love/hate about Scene It is, when you are giving a movie scene to watch and answer a question about... there is no way of knowing what you might get asked. It might simply be the title of the movie. Sometimes it's something obscure like "How many times did the cash register ring in the background?" You REALLY have to be paying attention. A photographic memory and some ADD is good. Pay attention to a little bit of EVERYTHING.
Jay & Susannah held their own quite well. Like I said, we were over-confident, but that's fine. It was still fun. There were definitely some questions that no one had any clue on. Which is good! Then it's not a run away for anyone.
Two things I'd say... 1) Get more people involved! Anyone up for it? 2) Various games to add to the collection. Rummikub. Mah Jongg. Life.
I posted this @ 2/05/2007 09:43:00 AM.............Need a link?..........
I'm a 30-something student of human nature. A music-lovin', groove-shakin', laugh-inducin', dish-cookin', gossip-slingin', type of guy. This is my diary of sorts...
