Okay, I had a LOT of fun last night. The art was secondary, really, to a bunch of people of mixed ages ranging from early 20s through 70s who just liked to talk about a lot of things. Anne was in wonderfully bright spirits, beaming smiles and offering tasties and wine with gleeful abandon. Two of the men that were at the Holy Blossom Temle thing that I attended back in December were there, and Anne's father and maternal grandmother, among many others. About halfway through the evening, Annabelle, Katie, and Susan showed up - Annabelle with her cute new boyfriend and Katie with a fellow I knew in New College, Eric, and I rather hope he isn't going out with her. Annabelle has been systematically cutting Anne out of her life despite 20 years of friendship, or something, because Anne no longer fits into Annabelle's lifestyle. It's funny that this happened after Anne's accident. I was disgusted by Annabelle's overt disrespect, to the point of isolating herself in the corner with her boyfriend and making obnoxious yawning gestures and giggling. This is the same Annabelle who hosted a sit down dinner party with me six years ago. Apparently, adult parties aren't good enough for her anymore. Susan would probably have stayed longer had Annabelle and Katie not pushed to leave. :(

I actually had arrived at Anne's place about 40 minutes early in order to help her and Celeste, her sister, with the setting up. Anne's in a wheelchair because of a horrible spinal injury she received in France, and another pair of hands that are able to reach tall places is always useful. I brewed my delicious fancy cider, mulling it with cinnamon sticks and apple slices, half an orange, and a cup of cranberries. People certainly seemed to like it. There were chocolate filled crepes and coconut-crusted cake, lox, cream cheese and bagles, pasta salad and homemade lemonade, white wine and champagne. Conversation was fast and furious and the heat in Anne's appartment had to be turned right off in order to keep it a bearable temperature. I enjoyed it greatly, and really liked Celeste. A strange, and somewhat surprising perk, was Mike Wood, an old friend from Northern. He's still the same old Mike, except he's older and able to talk about more than just video games and geek things. He was -interesting- and by the end of the evening, I found myself giving him my phone number and email. Weird. I felt a little weird not helping Anne with the post-party clean-up, but since I'd arrived early and helped set up, including mopping the floor, I didn't think I could hang on much longer. I'd also played the role of semi-hostess, retrieving drinks and finding plates and glasses for people all evening long.

Tomorrow, I'm going to set a court date for my parking ticket, which is irritating. I'd intended to do it today, before going to paint my appartment, but frankly, I needed a chance to sleep in. I'm going to take shmutzi-clothes to wear while I'm painting, and I'll just leave them there for next time. I'm going for sushi with Rick after he's finished work and then he's coming back here tonight. I miss him. I have the distinct need to hug him. Right now. Anyway, that's for later. I'm going to the Petes as of tomorrow following Heretic, and then I'm staying at Mom's until Sunday morning. I have to do some more editing for Eric - he's got me doing his articles now. The money will be nice, though, so I won't complain and I've put it off long enough. Whoo, look, I'm procrastinating, painting doesn't sound as much fun now as it did earlier.