2 January 2008

"Sane" being a relative term, of course.  You can't get some 20 theatre folks together and have too sane of an evening.

We had such a good time last night.  This is the third or fourth year we've gathered together with all these people, who are most of my very favorite people in Davis.

The party starts around 7.  We got there at 7:15, by which time most of the people were there eating delicious hors d'oeuvres.  Our hostess is a marvelous cook and everything is always incredible.

Two of the people are involved with the SPCA, so there was a lot of animal talk going on, including one of the funniest stories I've heard in a long time (which makes me feel so much better about our dogs!)  This was a hysterical, yet tragic story of some hors d'oeuvres she made. I don't remember what they were -- some mushroom something that involved a LOT of work, so intricate that when they were finished, she wrapped each individually, put them in a box and put the box on top of the armoire in her guest bedroom. When she came home, her two poodles had somehow managed to get into the box and had eaten every one of the things. There is no way the poodles could have jumped that high, but she had an exercise ball in one corner of the room, and she assumes that they somehow jumped on the ball and from there to the top of the armoire. She wishes she had installed a "nannie-cam" in the room!

About an hour and a half into the party, the hostess puts out two different soups, one vegetarian.  This year it was Mullagatawny soup and French onion soup.  Hard to know which was the more delicious.

Then there were amazing desserts, and when we all were stuffed, it was time to play the "name game."  During the cocktail hour, we all have little pads of paper on which we write names.  Any names.  Any names that people are likely to know.  Everyone from St. Theresa of Lisieux to Captain Kangaroo to local actors to obscure literary figures or characters in books.  The slips of paper are put in a bowl and as each person takes his or her turn, the scorekeeper keeps track of the time and you try to get your team to identify as many names as possible until your time runs out.

I love playing with this group because, in addition to being very funny people, they all have sharp, biting wits and a vast store of knowledge, especially of music, movies, and theatre.  I always laugh a lot...and learn a lot too.

As it happened, I got the record number of names identified during one of my turns, which was a less impressive accomplishment than it would seem, because I was sitting next to someone who had written 3 of the 6 names I was trying to get my team to guess.  That always helps!

We were so involved with the game (and laughing so much...and we were drinking coffee) that it was 2 minutes to midnight before anybody thought to check the ball in Times Square.

After the ball dropped, champagne was poured, hugs were passed around for all, and we started packing up to leave.  Walt and I were home before 12:30.

I spent most of New Year's day holding puppies and watching a Monk marathon (for those who aren't into football!).  I don't know what sort of switch has clicked on in Chunk's head, but she now lives to attack Half Pint and so I've spent the whole day with one or the other in my lap while the other one wanders around the room.  I had two blissful hours when both were asleep, Chunk on the floor, and Half Pint on my chair, way to the back where Chunk couldn't reach her.

When they woke up, I let Half Pint into the floor and Chunk was in my lap.  She looked like Snoopy when he is pretending to be a vulture.  She didn't take her eyes off the other puppy and her whole body was so tense she trembled the whole time.

Eventually I did the puppy switch -- Chunk on the floor, Half Pint to my lap.

Half Pint is going to join her siblings tomorrow afternoon.  She was originally separated from them because she was so little and needed to build up strength.  Well, she has done that.  She is still significantly smaller than the others, but we're hoping they will be less problematic for her than Chunk has become.

With luck, both of them will find new homes on Saturday, when they go up for adoption.