Housewarmers

As I said at the event itself, next time I am getting a bigger apartment – or fewer friends.

Guess which one it'll be.

So many people showed up for the housewarming, we all had trouble fitting in – and at some points breathing too, as the day abruptly decided to be remarkably warm. Food was et; non-alcoholics, cider and beer consumed; conversations took odd turns, and at one point many seemed particularly interested in reading aloud pre-Freshman-comp college English composition essays. Which were, admittedly, often hilarious.

Two friends took the train up all the way from NYC - a three-hour ride each way - just for the party. I continue to be astonished and honored by these people. They'd arrived in the morning, so we'd had some time for a quick car tour of the prettier parts of Providence, and a stroll through Brown's greens. It was fun playing tour guide in a city to which I just moved. Providence is conscientious, too, about reminding you that it is not in fact a suburb of Boston. We do not have a downtown. We have a downcity.

English, Italian and Russian were spoken at the party. G. gave me a handmade hausbuch, with a cover of handmade paper, in which people wrote and doodled. N. came over, a writer whom I admire and a person whom I don't see nearly enough. He didn't know anyone there, save for quinnclub and tafkar (and my neighbor T., who was in dazed workmode and only made a brief appearance), but seems to have had fun anyway. It is nice when I don't have to hold people's hand through introducing themselves at a party and having conversations.

Later, six or seven were left; they indulged me by letting me read Eco and Sturgeon to them, we ate chocolate and laughed away another hour or so. At one point I looked around the room and realized that I'd established or reconfirmed some sort of intense connection with everyone sitting there just in the last couple of weeks. Here they all were, concentrated goodness. In my living room. Boggle. Thank you, all of you.

Then, there was one left, and that was also good. We hadn't had much of a chance to spend time alone together in a while; whenever this happens with anyone, there's this twinge of "what if we're no longer connected in that way". It was comforting to have the twinge melt away unobtrusively.

Then, he left, and I stayed, Green Man over the bedroom doorframe, house alive and warm and tingly with laughter.

Housewarmers

As I said at the event itself, next time I am getting a bigger apartment – or fewer friends.

Guess which one it'll be.

So many people showed up for the housewarming, we all had trouble fitting in – and at some points breathing too, as the day abruptly decided to be remarkably warm. Food was et; non-alcoholics, cider and beer consumed; conversations took odd turns, and at one point many seemed particularly interested in reading aloud pre-Freshman-comp college English composition essays. Which were, admittedly, often hilarious.

Two friends took the train up all the way from NYC - a three-hour ride each way - just for the party. I continue to be astonished and honored by these people. They'd arrived in the morning, so we'd had some time for a quick car tour of the prettier parts of Providence, and a stroll through Brown's greens. It was fun playing tour guide in a city to which I just moved. Providence is conscientious, too, about reminding you that it is not in fact a suburb of Boston. We do not have a downtown. We have a downcity.

English, Italian and Russian were spoken at the party. G. gave me a handmade hausbuch, with a cover of handmade paper, in which people wrote and doodled. N. came over, a writer whom I admire and a person whom I don't see nearly enough. He didn't know anyone there, save for quinnclub and tafkar (and my neighbor T., who was in dazed workmode and only made a brief appearance), but seems to have had fun anyway. It is nice when I don't have to hold people's hand through introducing themselves at a party and having conversations.

Later, six or seven were left; they indulged me by letting me read Eco and Sturgeon to them, we ate chocolate and laughed away another hour or so. At one point I looked around the room and realized that I'd established or reconfirmed some sort of intense connection with everyone sitting there just in the last couple of weeks. Here they all were, concentrated goodness. In my living room. Boggle. Thank you, all of you.

Then, there was one left, and that was also good. We hadn't had much of a chance to spend time alone together in a while; whenever this happens with anyone, there's this twinge of "what if we're no longer connected in that way". It was comforting to have the twinge melt away unobtrusively.

Then, he left, and I stayed, Green Man over the bedroom doorframe, house alive and warm and tingly with laughter.