the party boys call the kremlin
This might possibly have been my best Carnival evar. I had a rockin' weekend.
I had houseguests: soong, cheerfulchaotic, ts4z, damion, and jccw (who is still here). Yay for really awesome guests who not only make it fun to stay up way too late chatting and playing games, but are also helpful and cook for me and help clean my house. You all are welcome back anytime.
By Thursday midday, I was wiggling in my seat at work, excited for the weekend. A bunch of us crashed Mad Mex that evening for a totally enjoyable dinner out, which was made bonus good by getting 20 people (plus a few joiners) seated on time in a smoke-free restaurant, and overpaying the bill. I should probably try to remember for the future that the "mild" wings there are really too hot for me, and I should eat something else.
Friday and Saturday I did campus stuff, midway stuff, and party stuff, mostly with kids. Having the kids around for most of Carnival is tiring, because, well, have to watch out for three people all the time, and plan around their schedules, but it also helped enforce a mandatory "come home early" practice for me both days, which meant that for a couple hours before dinner, we came home and vegged out in the house for a while before going out or doing other social stuff. This turned out to be a huge sanity saver for me, and helped in making the whole weekend good.
There were two major party events of my weekend, KGB and Pie:
KGB
This year was the 20th anniversary of KGB, a geek social organization founded by a bunch of shiftless layabouts back in the old days, er, 1988. I was directed to it by dr4b when I was a bagger, and joined as soon as I came back as a froshling. It provided a lot, although not all, of my social engagement for a couple years, and I have a lot of good memories from there. Most of my family has been involved at some point. Mark was a member as an undergrad, and although I took a short break while pregnant, when I came back to meetings in 1998 with a newborn, wandelrust rushed forward to pay his dues.
The anniversary event was remarkably well done. It seems like it transformed the group into something better than it was before, but really, I think all it did was point out how things can be done right. And so it was that a generation of sideways-social geeks, who initially came to the organization in their own blip of time through a common interest in weirdness, pranking, and xkcd-like humor, gathered together not entirely unlike an odd family reunion. And there was pretty much no drama, no old squabbles re-lit, no bitterness brought forward threatening to divide the room. The Old Folks joked about how things were better Back In The Day, and the youngsters cheered for themselves, and then they mingled and told jokes and listened and shook hands and -- dare I say it -- made friends.
I teared up several times over the course of the weekend. It was demonstrated multiple times that the path of humor here goes: flippant comment -> joke repeated by freshman -> tradition. I was fascinated by the minute-but-important distinctions between people who like to talk, but attract listeners, vs people who just like to talk, and saw the lost Art of Storytelling brought back and celebrated and revered. It was impressive just how close to the original mindset the group has stayed, not through inertia, but because it actually works, for these people.
I was part of other social groups in college which are still going on today, including one I helped found. And the contrast between coming back to those, where nobody knows me, and nobody can relate, and coming back to KGB, where I could still feel at home, was striking. I now understand more fully why CMU spends so much time catering to alumni (and it's not just the money). Because when a group remembers you, even just in the collective sense, it's a a lot more meaningful to come back to it. And KGB is, as was spoken so eloquently and will be repeated thereafter, Not Doing It Wrong. Thank you.
Pie
The pie party this year was, in my not-so-humble opinion, a huge success, and possibly my best yet. I counted (roughly, as not all piemakers made pie cards) 20 actual pies and ~5 pie-like (or unlike) dishes, which is the most I've gotten to date. The spanakopita I made was the first to get cleaned out, and the various veggie pies and quiches were all greatly enjoyed. We had a lovely mincemeat, several varieties of pumpkin/squash pies, a great many apple pies, several strawberry things, a chocolate, a banana cream, a pecan, and a most excellent calamondin orange meringue, which I fortunately got a taste of. There was also assorted tarts, pastries, sorbet, veggies, and a plate o' meat.
I got, at best count and including children, a bit over 60 people, which is also the highest guest count I've gotten to date. And -- the best part -- my house actually fit them all! I love my house! Thanks to some weather which ended up being nearly perfect (despite a near-disastrous forecast). People socialized on the deck and the backyard, played games in the game room, ate pie and chatted in the dining room, and gathered and played cards in the living room. Kids wandered around and played in the next door neighbor's yard and upstairs.
I think the only bottleneck space was the dining room at pie-time, as my food configuration was clearly inferior. I suspect it would be greatly improved by a longer table, in a bigger space, which can be traversed buffet-style. But I think it wasn't horrible, and I even got a very lovely comment on how my pie party really is a nice, relaxing atmosphere, compared to other weekend festivities.
As with all my parties, things eventually evolved into groups of games, even before evening came, and some folks said their farewells and left for dinner, or the airport, or home. Those groups gradually dwindled down until we were left with a single, big table of Elfenland, which dispersed shortly before midnight, about 10 hours after party-start. And the best part? Aside from some empty-plate clearing, there was almost no cleanup work for me to speak of. People cleaned up after themselves, someone washed some dishes, friends helped gather trash, and I still got a few leftovers (which will be gone today). My friends rock.
I ended up with some pie pans, a book, a toy trumpet, and a windbreaker in my lost+found, but I know who everything except for the huge cooking pan belongs to.
In short, this Carnival rocked for me. It ended at the right time, and I got in and out most all of what I wanted. See you next year!
I had houseguests: soong, cheerfulchaotic, ts4z, damion, and jccw (who is still here). Yay for really awesome guests who not only make it fun to stay up way too late chatting and playing games, but are also helpful and cook for me and help clean my house. You all are welcome back anytime.
By Thursday midday, I was wiggling in my seat at work, excited for the weekend. A bunch of us crashed Mad Mex that evening for a totally enjoyable dinner out, which was made bonus good by getting 20 people (plus a few joiners) seated on time in a smoke-free restaurant, and overpaying the bill. I should probably try to remember for the future that the "mild" wings there are really too hot for me, and I should eat something else.
Friday and Saturday I did campus stuff, midway stuff, and party stuff, mostly with kids. Having the kids around for most of Carnival is tiring, because, well, have to watch out for three people all the time, and plan around their schedules, but it also helped enforce a mandatory "come home early" practice for me both days, which meant that for a couple hours before dinner, we came home and vegged out in the house for a while before going out or doing other social stuff. This turned out to be a huge sanity saver for me, and helped in making the whole weekend good.
There were two major party events of my weekend, KGB and Pie:
KGB
This year was the 20th anniversary of KGB, a geek social organization founded by a bunch of shiftless layabouts back in the old days, er, 1988. I was directed to it by dr4b when I was a bagger, and joined as soon as I came back as a froshling. It provided a lot, although not all, of my social engagement for a couple years, and I have a lot of good memories from there. Most of my family has been involved at some point. Mark was a member as an undergrad, and although I took a short break while pregnant, when I came back to meetings in 1998 with a newborn, wandelrust rushed forward to pay his dues.
The anniversary event was remarkably well done. It seems like it transformed the group into something better than it was before, but really, I think all it did was point out how things can be done right. And so it was that a generation of sideways-social geeks, who initially came to the organization in their own blip of time through a common interest in weirdness, pranking, and xkcd-like humor, gathered together not entirely unlike an odd family reunion. And there was pretty much no drama, no old squabbles re-lit, no bitterness brought forward threatening to divide the room. The Old Folks joked about how things were better Back In The Day, and the youngsters cheered for themselves, and then they mingled and told jokes and listened and shook hands and -- dare I say it -- made friends.
I teared up several times over the course of the weekend. It was demonstrated multiple times that the path of humor here goes: flippant comment -> joke repeated by freshman -> tradition. I was fascinated by the minute-but-important distinctions between people who like to talk, but attract listeners, vs people who just like to talk, and saw the lost Art of Storytelling brought back and celebrated and revered. It was impressive just how close to the original mindset the group has stayed, not through inertia, but because it actually works, for these people.
I was part of other social groups in college which are still going on today, including one I helped found. And the contrast between coming back to those, where nobody knows me, and nobody can relate, and coming back to KGB, where I could still feel at home, was striking. I now understand more fully why CMU spends so much time catering to alumni (and it's not just the money). Because when a group remembers you, even just in the collective sense, it's a a lot more meaningful to come back to it. And KGB is, as was spoken so eloquently and will be repeated thereafter, Not Doing It Wrong. Thank you.
Pie
The pie party this year was, in my not-so-humble opinion, a huge success, and possibly my best yet. I counted (roughly, as not all piemakers made pie cards) 20 actual pies and ~5 pie-like (or unlike) dishes, which is the most I've gotten to date. The spanakopita I made was the first to get cleaned out, and the various veggie pies and quiches were all greatly enjoyed. We had a lovely mincemeat, several varieties of pumpkin/squash pies, a great many apple pies, several strawberry things, a chocolate, a banana cream, a pecan, and a most excellent calamondin orange meringue, which I fortunately got a taste of. There was also assorted tarts, pastries, sorbet, veggies, and a plate o' meat.
I got, at best count and including children, a bit over 60 people, which is also the highest guest count I've gotten to date. And -- the best part -- my house actually fit them all! I love my house! Thanks to some weather which ended up being nearly perfect (despite a near-disastrous forecast). People socialized on the deck and the backyard, played games in the game room, ate pie and chatted in the dining room, and gathered and played cards in the living room. Kids wandered around and played in the next door neighbor's yard and upstairs.
I think the only bottleneck space was the dining room at pie-time, as my food configuration was clearly inferior. I suspect it would be greatly improved by a longer table, in a bigger space, which can be traversed buffet-style. But I think it wasn't horrible, and I even got a very lovely comment on how my pie party really is a nice, relaxing atmosphere, compared to other weekend festivities.
As with all my parties, things eventually evolved into groups of games, even before evening came, and some folks said their farewells and left for dinner, or the airport, or home. Those groups gradually dwindled down until we were left with a single, big table of Elfenland, which dispersed shortly before midnight, about 10 hours after party-start. And the best part? Aside from some empty-plate clearing, there was almost no cleanup work for me to speak of. People cleaned up after themselves, someone washed some dishes, friends helped gather trash, and I still got a few leftovers (which will be gone today). My friends rock.
I ended up with some pie pans, a book, a toy trumpet, and a windbreaker in my lost+found, but I know who everything except for the huge cooking pan belongs to.
In short, this Carnival rocked for me. It ended at the right time, and I got in and out most all of what I wanted. See you next year!