What music?!

It was set up to be the first gathering of co-workers outside of the fish bowl. We originally set the date for February 3rd. No go. 10th? Nope. 17th? Nuh-uh. So we get to the 24th and finally we find a date that works for all. Now mind you this is just 4 people attempting to coordinate their schedules so we can all enjoy an evening together.

So with the date settled we then discuss times. This seems easy as we all agree that 7pm works for all. Then word gets out that Wicked had a birthday party his family was throwing for him and he'd either need to cancel or we had to switch the time to 9pm at least. So we did. The time was switched to 9pm.

Day before the event we find that the "birthday party" had been taken care of early and the 7pm time was re-instated. After a discussion with the wife we decided to alter that to 7:30 to give us a little extra time to prepare.

So at this point the party is already has a cloud of "disaster" hanging over it. So we spend Friday night and Saturday afternoon cleaning the house. We do all our shopping Saturday morning. Victoria starts preparing food at 1pm.

Becky is the first to show up and quickly helps trim Cinnamon's claws and helps Victoria out in the kitchen. I run to get Butch at 5:30 and we're back around 6:45. Allison shows up. Sam shows up. 30 minutes later Skip and Jenny make it. Now here's where things start to turn.

Butch and Becky know each other and they both know us pretty well. So getting us to converse is no chore. From the moment when Allison arrives I like to think of things much like going to a symphony production. Thus we begin the time as the stage hands begin setting up the chairs and stands and the musicians begin making their way in with music and other odd items that they'll need but will look odd walking in with. We're having some trouble getting conversation started. There's a bit of awkwardness in the air as Butch tries to get his iPod connected on our computer and breaks the keyboard tray in the process (note: it was broken months ago and is just hanging on).

Sam arrives and the symphony begins to warm up. You hear a few instruments here and there tuning up and making final arrangements. Our conversation starts the roll and things just begin to pick up as Butch breaks the keyboard tray once again.

As the orchestra walks out on stage and goes through the final motions and the conductor addresses the crowd, Skip and Jenny arrive. Then the symphony begins and oh, what a symphony it was! What started as a split melody came together to form a magnificent masterpiece. Great conversation, a ton of laughs and the room was absolutely filled with ceol agus craic (Music and Camaraderie). Oh and Cinnamon found her voice! She snuck behind me as we were in the kitchen. I took a step back, realized I stood on something and heard a loud noise. I stood there for a moment wondering what that noise was until people around started getting startled. Then I realized it was Cinnamon screaming her bloody head off. Yeah it was her tail. I let go and she went limping into the other room.

Speaking of music, Skip you left too early. They had to get back home because, well, it was getting late and they wanted to. Lay off them already! Still, we got a little karaoke started. Butch and Becky serenaded us to start. I joined in with Allison coming in a few bars later. Sam finally decided to join us and then it was on. It's the End of the World As We Know It. Ice, Ice Baby. U Can't Touch This. Humpty Dance. Me and Bobby McGee. Billie Jean. It was magical. After about 20 or so songs, Sam and Allison headed home.

At this point we played a bit more music, talked about the cat and when Becky left we cleaned up a little and headed to sleep. WOW 8am never came so fast. Oh all those jokes we made about spinning Cinnamon in a chair and how she was bound to throw up before the end of the night? Yeah well it happened. She apparently got into the ricotta-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon while we were sleeping. I woke up around 6am to pee and found a little present on the bathroom mat. Yucko.

Well overall this was a huge smash hit. Great conversation, food, music, friendship, fun, etc. Everyone really liked everyone else (as far as I know) and I can't wait to do it again.