Hosting

D and I co-hosted our first function last evening to thank those who helped us move.

D put our names on our mailbox and I think my heart skipped a beat. I suppose I hadn't realized that we were living together prior to seeing our names together. He said "I'm sorry I had to put my name first but it sounded dumb the other way." True. Unfortunate, but true.

We got off to a rough start because one of us can't plan ahead so the shopping for vegetables and alcohol was left until last night post-work, giving us exactly one hour to clean the apartment, make cucumber sandwiches, make lasagna (the limiting factor), make a gigantic salad, make brownies, put things out, etc.

D is definitely a more anxious host than me, which I found surprising. I think this is because D is used to having 3 people at most over at a time, whereas my Boston roots trained me to expect no fewer than 40 people. Granted, its been ages since I prepared a meal for over 10 people, but I was the model of composure. I think D's anxiety forced me to chill out.

The lasagna noodles took 10,000 years to boil. We didn't have enough counter space to be working on all of these projects at the same time. D was testy and insecure. He kept asking me "How should I cut the peppers?" "Whatever you think is best." "Do you like the cucumbers peeled?" "I don't care." "Should I put the M&M's in this bowl?" "Whatever you want."

Guests showed up early. D was a bit nervous. We have a list of "Things To Do" on our refrigerator involving the apartment and personal things, such as "Dye Hair Soon." One of the items was "Check for Roof Access," which, for some reason, we hadn't done until last night. We sent The Boss and Bench Buddy on an expedition to see if we had roof access.

When they didn't turn up for quite some time, we concluded that they were either dead or that we do, indeed, have roof access. The remaining guests and I headed up to the roof. I tripped on a step en route, fell over, and managed to spill wine everywhere but not drop the glass. How is that possible? Although, if I had dropped the glass it wouldn't have broken because it was an unbreakable glass from M and A.

And oh! The roof. We are morons for not having investigated sooner. But we have become people who run out of milk and toilet paper because there is too much going on. It was a glorious evening and the sun was setting and we can see The Empire State Building and all of midtown and oh! Exquisite. I held court with a re-telling of the Statue Story involving The Parents for those who hadn't yet heard it. They found it riveting.

We stayed up there too long and forgot to heat up the lasagna. At 9:00 we returned and I drunkenly cooked the lasagna for too long and then didn't let it cool off for long enough, so it became a runny mess but was still oh-so-delicious.

And curse you, NR, for you and your Journey-loving ways! When we sat down for dinner, D put on the Journey video, which is awesome for about ten minutes, but man. Why break up a perfectly nice conversation and force everyone to watch and discuss Journey?

We ate brownies and ice cream (wrong, I know, but it was a special night!) and everyone was gone by 11:00. I did dishes while D mopped everything because he is unable to deal with shoes in the house.

I didn't sleep well because of wine and memory foam, and today I am a wreck, but we had fun and I want to always have people over as long as it doesn't involve lasagna.