Parties...

After a long Saturday spent on Chinese lessons (more on that in another post), visiting the stationery shop (more on that in another post), work at the office (which included starting to tackle our sample display -- huge job!) and a quick dinner at home, we headed over to Tim's birthday party -- my first out-of-the-house party/activity/celebration, well, sort of, as I've been on plenty of outings and other things, but party-party, is what I mean.

We went over to the Home that's made up of people who used to live here, so they're all a swell bunch. Then, the invite listed included lots of other swell people, starting with Sara Hungarian ("Oh my God!" well, that's how I greeted her, because I had no idea she'd be there and I had been wanting to see her); Joe, who was good friends with Manolo (a friend of mine) in Romania; Sol, who I only know from the soccer field, but who, after much Latin dancing, is sure to be a good soccer team member, if ever we end up on the same team (and as an aside: Sara, do make him behave! haha); et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

The theme was "all out", so I went as "all shiny" (somebody at [ex] Home should appreciate this, aherm). Well, as I was waiting for us to leave, Ia walked in and seemed to have had a very similar theme in mind, erps! She was "all bling", so she revised her look so that she'd be "all silver". I have to say, she was definitely "all stylish", while I was "all slapped-together-with-any-shiny-item-I-could-find-or-borrow-which-was-not-a-pretty-sight-only-mildly-shocking", heheh. (I am SO not a "shiny" person -- I muuuch prefer understated garments and accessories and a looow hemline, haha.) Oh well, it turned out okay, all things considered.

Some of the other personas were "all white" (Spike, as "Mr. White"), "all summer" (Marie), "all sports" (Paul, "all sorts" licorice?), "all alone" (Joe, without wifey, sniff), "all black and white" (Sol and Sara, both and contrasting each other), "all red" (Maggie, unwittingly, haha), "all pregnant" (Lorie), "all black" (Tim, and distinguished, heh), et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

There was lots of talking, dancing, laughing, and so on, for a good 4 hours. Had good dancing partners in both Marie and Rosy, for all the Latin-ness going on (Rosy being half-Peruvian and Marie being just Marie -- well, and Tasmanian, heh), besides, of course, Sol and all his adventurousness in trying to learn how to dance fast(er). I never learned, so I can't teach, but I do always get stuck on a fast off-beat with whatever tune is playing, thanks to any Brasilian influences that might've been around ages 0-18.

There were great snacks (chocolaaate!!!), funny games (aherm?) and generally good amusement and fun. I snuck snacks to the youngsters -- shhh, I hope none of the parents see this >:) -- caused some boisterousness (well, at least noise) and disappeared (nooo, not at aaall that way! aherm) on the last very looong slow song (heheh, baaad Ange).

On the way out, our vehicle had a flat, which Vince and Spike heroically helped to fix, even though they had a separate car with a longer trip home, as they were going out of their way in order to drop off Esther. Oh, and Ia helped with the fixing, too, heels and all, heh. That's what handy ladies are for! :) Meanwhile Danny got some shots of me and Faith with some interesting sculptures their neighbor has outside his door, which I'll post copies of once I get them.

All in all, a good time. Home by 3:00, asleep by 5:00 (urg!), up by 1:00 (sigh).

Sunday: nothing consequential at all, besides room-cleaning (barely), Word, devotions planning, talking, lunch with some, dinner with some, more talking, carrying Ryan, putting Ryan to sleep, laughing at Hik, Angel and Colm pretending to play small-yard soccer, enjoying the sounds of guitar and flute playing/practice floating into my room after bouncing off of our very-transporting-of-sounds wall set-up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Anyway, I don't know if anyone took pictures of last night, but if they did, they'll be forthcoming, here.

Adieu.