early summer parties

I really do love this time of year. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm the eternal student, and have not yet disengaged myself from the end of the school year feeling of freedom. The warm, sunny days don't hurt either.

I also love summer parties. (The fact that I've never myself given a summer party is something I'm not proud of, and would like to change while I still have some young left in me). Yesterday, there was a surprise birthday party for a friend of B's. She's a bit older than us, and is married and has two young boys. The family is something else! Cutest little kids. We arrived on time to witness some of the setup, which included a P.A. system as some friends were going to be playing some cover songs. It turns out there was actually a surprise within a surprise at this party; the bass player of the group has been dating the girl that was singing for several years or more, if I heard correctly, and was going to propose to her during their last song, Walk the Line. Some of the people there were aware of the upcoming proposal, so the atmosphere of the party seemed to be a bit more electric.

Most of the afternoon was spent eating from the extensive food spread, drinking good beer (their parties are so, so good if you are a beer lover), and alternating between being a monster and being chased by the monsters - with the kids. Later, B's friend made her entrance and was sucessfully surprised, I think. Right around dusk, the music playing began. I am not sure what two of the songs were, but they played a Radiohead song, and Walk the Line was last. Although he looked nervous, the bass player managed to get the words out and completely surprised his girl! She looked genuinely surprised and elated. She did say yes! Champagne was brought out for everyone to enjoy. I had never witnessed a proposal. Now that I and my friends are apparently of the marrying age, I have heard proposal stories. So I'll just say it was an experience in and of itself, to witness a huge moment like that. Then we sang happy birthday to the birthday girl and had fantastic cake, and sat around the firepit that was brought out after night had fully settled. The acoustic guitar was passed around, and I got a chance to play Blackbird. I thought it went well, considering I usually get sort of choked up, a kind of stage fright when I play in front of others. All in all, a fantastic party that went off without a hitch for all involved.

I do wish I had thought to bring my camera though! Earlier in the day the thought crossed my mind, but I wrote it off immediately as being too cumbersome, that I should just focus on enjoying the night rather than capturing cool pictures. But really, if any party could have used pictures, it was this one! The proposal could have been captured (although it was videotaped, I am going to have to admit I'm a photo snob), and various pictures of everyone enjoying the day would have been nice to send along to the hosts. Oh well, could haves don't matter now.

On a sidenote, I would love to have one of these portable fire pits when I have a real yard. It was about three feet in diameter, so the fire was modest, but quite warm considering the night was a little chilly. It kept the party going much longer than it would have without it I think. It became the natural gathering point.

I need to go practice guitar.

Listening: Jessamine - Don't Stay Too Long. I picked up this album (which originally came out in 1998) a few years ago at Amoeba, and as I have a tendency of buying too many albums per trip, this one slipped through the cracks. I had listened to the album maybe once, probably not all the way through. I put it in the stereo on Wednesday when I was working from home and was completely blown away! This album is excellent. What I think happened is that the style of this album, which is a sort of more guitar driven version of Portishead or something lush like that, didn't fully appeal to me at the time I bought it. But now, it fits in perfectly with the Bardo Pond, wall-of-guitar-effects sound that I'm into right now. My favorite track is called 'Continuous' and is this seven minute dirge of guitars with this entrancing bass/keyboard/vocal thing going on over it. But the drums keep it out of the depressing realm, by staying upbeat. This gets me sort of excited about reviewing some other recent finds that have been better than expected. Maybe that is a good subject for the next post.