Party notes

I got up at around eleven this morning because I went to bed at five today. Five in the morning is not the best time for bed, but when you've turned in final grades, when you're done writing the last comments for a student, when you won't be locking yourself in the office to grade for the rest of the year, you want to stay up and out. At least I did.

I had dinner with Noella, her sister, Stephanie, and Frank - homecooked food and wine and ice-cream and tea (PG Tips tea from the UK; very cool pyrimad-shaped teabags). Conversation - sometimes just one among the four of us, sometimes two. Frank showed off his spiffy new coat from Peiming, and Stephanie and I caught up on the latest Singapore celebrity gossip.

When I listed a few things for her to do in Ann Arbor, Nectos, the little club in Ann Arbor, came up. Stephanie loves to dance and was eager to check out the dance floor in a university town. It was 12:30 and we all decided on impulse to dress up and go. Or rather, Noella and I decided to dress up. I went home and put on a skirt (even though it was about -15 degrees celsius) and my combat boots. Noella opted for zebra-print heels (no socks, of course, and no stockings). At Nectos, we discovered it was Goth night, or rather S&M/fetish night, judging by the amount of leather, chains, black makeup, and black clothing that we witnessed. Of us four, I was probably the most aptly dressed since my boots are rather Gothic. The music was too weird, so we left and went searching for other happening locations. We tried three other places that turned up with zero dancing opportunities. So we wound up at Pinball Pete's where the two sisters were going to dance up a fury on the Dance Revolution machine. But after one brief performance, the lights went off because it was near closing. So we went next door to get some Bubble Tea, but wound up with only takeaway curly fries and awful tea. Then off to Kroger's where we found out that they don't sell alcohol after two in the morning; so Stephanie couldn't have her beer. We returned to Noella's place for our soggy curly fries, hot mushroom soup, and more tea and conversation. At 3:50, I finally couldn't keep my eyes open and decided to go home. It wasn't a success of a night out, but it was fun trying to make it a success.

Wind back the clock - on Sunday night, we had a wine-and-cheese and present exchange at Peiming's. Everyone had brought a little gift and after much discussion, we decided to do a song in order to make the exchanges. We sat in a circle and sang "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" while passing presents around. When the song ended, lucky fellow Jake, seated on my left wound up with my present - a Timey and a Christmas-themed Whiskie from MSC International.

I got Noella's gift, a very useful One Pot cookbook - everything cooks in one pot!

And this concludes my entry on parties for now. I'll have a couple more soon. Wednesday afternoon and night, I'll be at my friend Michelle's place for gingerbread house decorating and dinner. Christmas Eve, I'll be on my solo mini road trip to Clarkston where Chris and Amy - friends of LK's and mine - live. And then next week, a couple of New Year Eve parties. How will I ever get work done?

Posted by Monoceros at December 21, 2004 7:04 PM