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The mark of a really good
party is that you wake up the next day with the house a disaster. Since
it’s a terrible curse of mine that I can’t sleep after I’ve been
drinking, I wake up just after 9am, after a mere 5 hours or so of fitful
rest, and stumble out of my bedroom to survey the damage. Trying not to
make too much noise, so as not to awake the other three people still
slumbering in the house, I grab a big garbage bag to begin picking up
the dirty cups, used napkins and empty bottles. I peel the feathers off
the very sticky floor – reminders of the many feather boas sported the
evening before – and pile the leftover usable costume bits in a
corner. I’ve just gotten around to the kitchen – nearly an hour
later, when a rather peaked-looking Spencer and groggy Lisa shuffle into
the kitchen – he in the same clothes he wore the night before, she in
her pajamas. The pick-up process grows slowly more raucous as we recap
the party highlights, snicker and chortle and snort occasional “no
way!”s, wash dishes, rinse bottles -- bang and clank and move around,
until poor Asher has no choice but to get out of bed and join in the
cleaning fun. Eventually, we gather around a
table outside for lunch. It’s a beautiful, blue-skied, picture-perfect
Arizona spring day. We’ve scrounged together a surprisingly nice
spread based entirely on leftovers from the party – veggies and
caramelized onion dip, roasted red pepper hummus and pita, marinated
black olives, cheese and crackers, bocconcini and cherry tomatoes, mini
quiches and tiny curry pastries, a slice of cold pizza whose origin
still remains a mystery to me. We’ve having big glasses of cool water
all around. We’re hung-over and exhausted, un-showered and not yet
dressed for the day, hair mussed and sleep-rumpled. But we’re loud and
eager with gossip and chit-chat, indignant when talk turns to politics
and the current scary state of the world, excited when we start talking
about where we’re all heading in the future. And though my head hurts
a bit and I’m sure I look a fright, I’m awake, and so happy.
There’s no where else in the world I’d rather be: I feel so
completely at home, and not just because I happen to live in this
house. The sun’s shining on my bare arms, my boy’s by my side, I
have a table brimming with delectable food, and good friends sitting on
the opposite side. And life just feels good, and perfect, and full. o check
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---------------------------> lounge . nourish . host . laze . home. |
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