Log! From Blammo!
2003-01-02 � 11:52 a.m.

"What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs, rolls over the neighbor's dog? What fits on your back, is great for a snack? It's Log, Log, Log! It's Loooog, it's Loooog -- it's big, it's heavy, it's wood! It's Loooog, it's Loooog -- it's better than bad, it's good!"

Yes, Log. *sniff* I miss my Log. I'm quite sure my cold and unfeeling parents have burned it up by now.

Beware! Below is a super-long account of my New Year's Eve exploits that could be considered very boring.

---

I suppose that some sort of commentary on either the New Year or its Eve is in order. Since my actual New Year's Day was the direct result of the evening before, that's where one should start. I guess.

First and foremost let me make something very clear: I am not a partygoer in the normal course of events. I am by nature a loner and usually quite happy being all by myself doing stupid crap to entertain me.

That being said, I do go out and "hang" as the kids would have it, and I also occasionally indulge in a bit of the "partying."

New Year's Eve. Yes.

I had been informed that my friend Ryan (aka "Davey" or "R-dogs") was having a New Year's party at his abode. I eagerly agreed to go, as I like Ryan quite a bit and have hung out with his friends some small amount as well, and gotten along with them just fine too.

Then I was out at the Bonfire one night and something made me ask Dimitri what his plans for the evening in question were. He replied that he had none and I invited him and his girlfriend Tracey to come with. He said okay.

The next day, I started to kind of wonder about that. Not so much that I invited people to a party that was not my own (Ryan wouldn't care, I knew) but that Ryan's friends and Dimitri/Tracey weren't exactly of the same...same...well, the same kinds of people.

You know how it is, right? You've got the one big group of people that you call your friends, but there are usually sub-groups within that big group, right? And quite often they never intersect. Like, I would never invite some of my Computer Geeky friends to come to rock shows with me, because that's just not their deal and they'd feel uncomfortable. It's like, my interests I have in common with all of my friends, but different interests with each group, right?

Does this make sense?

Anyway, I have different groupings of friends, and I realized that by inviting Dimitri I was suddenly intermingling two different groups. I started to worry, because either group or both might be made uncomfortable or uneasy by the presence of the others. And this was a pretty extreme mixing, or at least it became so in my worrying. Dimitri and Tracey are rock and roll bar people, and Ryan and his friends are more likely to get all dressed up and go downtown for the evening.

I worry about stuff like this.

So I got home from work on Tuesday, nearly worked into a lather I was so nervous about this, and my friend Bil was there, home visiting from the Navy, and so was Korash, another friend of Ryan's and my roommate. I love getting home and finding a big group of people hanging out (yeah, I know three isn't "big") -- oh wait, no I don't.

My roommate informed me that my old friend Ross had called, wondering about what I was doing for the evening, and that he (my roommate) had invited Ross over to Ryan's house.

Now I haven't seen Ross for quite some time -- we used to work together doing the tech support hell job waaaaaaay back before I ever started this diary thingy. The job was evil and wring, but caused a few good things to happen, like meeting people like Ross and also the good and great Hollie, who eventually inspired me to start this diary thingy.

But Ross is in yet another of my friend categories. Ack! My stress level went up a few hundred more notches and I thought I might be getting an ulcer.

Short story long, I ate food and brushed my teeth and went to meet Dimitri at the Bonfire. We picked up Tracey and headed for Ryan's at about ten p.m. Out of stress I cautioned them several times that they might not enjoy themselves and they shouldn't feel bad about just taking off if they wanted (I was pleased to hear that they had several other things they could go do -- I hate being responsible for people's entertainment).

Once we arrived at Ryan's things started to get weird.

Ryan had plenty of the booze, which is what people are looking for at a New Year's Party I suppose. A keg and a refrigerator full of Champagne. Several other people showed up with bottles of stuff, and there was mingling and talking and consuming of liquid hospitality.

Dimitri and Tracey seemed to be having a good time, so that made me relax a whole lot, and once Ross and his girlfriend Liz showed up and also seemed to fit in okay, I was very pleased.

I got to meet Ryan's girlfriend Allison, who is just the sweetest thing ever and super nice. I did my part to empty the keg, and took Dimitri upstairs to have Ryan's cousin Jason pour us shots of Jack. I chatted with Ross and he told me that my current job is "beneath me."

Midnight arrived with much cheering and slurping of Champagne (ugh, nasty stuff). Tracey, who I had caught upstairs doing quite a few shots with my friend Deborah, decided she needed to kiss me, and the fact that I let her will tell you just how fine and floaty I was feeling. Worry not -- it was just a peck on the lips. But still, this is me we're talking about here, so it is quite an amazing thing.

It gets better.

Ryan was getting more than a little inebriated and I cannot remember what he said, but it was something about not getting enough kisses, so I told him I would give him one. He leaned forward and yes...I kissed him on the lips. It weirded him out a whole lot I think -- he immediately started traveling through the room and approaching different conversational groups to tell them he had kissed me on the lips.

I wasn't particularly bothered by it, and it amused me to see him (and others) making such a big deal about it.

Since it was after midnight people started consuming alcohol with much more vigor, and the remaining events come to me in a kind of pastiche of scenes. I wasn't drunk, precisely, but I wasn't sober either.

I remember going out into the garage to refill my cup from the keg and seeing Tracey doing some kind of hoochie dance with two guys who were certainly not Dimitri, one of whom turned out to be Korash.

I remember standing in the kitchen with a couple of people and Jason expressing his disbelief that Ryan and I had kissed. I told him he was jealous, and he agreed, and then we kissed.

I remember going upstairs and realizing that a bunch more people had arrived, and that I didn't actually know that many of them.

I remember standing by the front door and holding hands with Tracey, which thing I think bothers me the most of the entire evening.

I remember being out in the garage and Deborah exhorting Ryan and I to kiss again because she missed it and the thought made her "hot." She was very drunk.

I remember a few other things, but mostly I remember having a pretty damn good time and being relieved that the people I had invited also seemed to have a good time.

---

I'm pretty lucky. I need to remember that more often. I've got some good friends, and they seem to enjoy my company (lord knows why).

Now I will work long hours for the next three days, because school starts on Monday.

Monday!

Back to the grindstone folks. Be good.

-t

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