Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Life is oddly-satisfying when it's a little bit soggy*

There are many missing posts...

I'll try to catch up a little in a retrospective venture in the next few posts...

We are currently on vacation in P-town with some fairly reliable Internet access, but without our computer or without photos to compliment above promised posts... and with the Atlantic Ocean/National seashore less than 2 miles away, and Cape Cod Bay really only about 1/2 mile, downhill walk from our rental... So the point being- I don't know how much blogging will get done.

We arrived in P-town on Sunday night just after dark. It's getting darker earlier (just as it does every year.) It's funny how you associate longer days with summer and I associate summer with August, but the solstice is June 21st. So really, on August 21st, there is the same amount of daylight as on April 21st- which we can all agree, is not summer at all. So at 8:15pm when we arrived, it was dark, but the drive was painless and primarily traffic-free. We planned to leave for vacation "as early as possible" but ended up breaking down the party and cleaning until about 2pm, then we took a nap, then we finished packing- THEN we hit the open road. What can I say, we like to live on the edge!

What party you ask? Kate-a-palooza, of course! Katy's 30th birthday celebration.

We had a rip-roaring time: About 150 people dropping in a various points in the day; food that was totally yummy; a yard and house living up to their absolute BBQ potential; an ice luge in the garage and about $500 worth of liquor and beer to keep everything "lubricated." All worlds were colliding (we invited family, neighbors, school-mates, work colleagues from various jobs, old peeps, new friends...) which can be a little stressful, but worked out fantastic.

The weather which has been tipping into the high 80's and sometimes 90's for the last several weeks, somehow broke under the weight of my silent, begging prayers. Unbelievably, a stormy, soggy cool-off did not reveal itself, but rather, one of the more perfect and pleasant days of the year. The tents we set up as potential heat-stroke refuges were places that guests needed to don sweatshirts to stay comfy by late evening.

My gram made her now legendary eggplant parm. My mom made some homemade sausage and peppers, my sister brought the farm fresh corn on the cob. All those food items made the catered food more palatable. Katy's parents cleaned up our estate and transformed our garage into a college-kid's dream party/ hangout. Her brother initiated the evening fire pit. Her dad christened the horse shoe pit. My dad took several early shifts at the grill. The womb whisperer drove into town to play the role of indentured servant and continue her odyssey as the life-long, reliable, loyal, ass-kicking, pregnancy-protecting, I'll-do-all-the-dirty-work-at-your-major-celebratory-events kindred spirit. She hauled everything from ice to tents and sipped Jager quietly and steadily, as if it would prevent dishpan hands.

More to follow with pics and observations about the party. But the planning of it and the details have been one of the reasons for the paucity of posts in the last few weeks- the lists and preparatory arrangements consumed my thoughts. And it all went off better than we could have hoped. Yesterday was katy's actual birthday, and she spent it relaxing and tooling around a sweet, gay, summer town.

*This blog post title was just a quote from this morning's cereal conversation that seemed hilarious and profoundly accurate to me.

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