Weekend, part 2. Disco Dance Party and beyond.
When I arrived home, Katy, Shannon, and Michael had already let themselves in and had done an impressive amount of work already. I walked into my dining room to find my table pushed against the side wall, the leaf removed, and my couch and loveseat against the other two walls of what is normally my dining room. My living room was basically empty, and Shannon was sweeping the floor beneath where the rug and furniture had been.
From the center of the ceiling hung a mirror ball :)
After clearing out the living room completely and hanging lights, we went to work on the "lounge", hanging braided streamers. Katy contributed a really pimp lounge lampshade, seen here:
Preparations finished, they went home for awhile to get ready and change clothes, and I showered (remember, I'd been hiking and kind of smelled), then got groceries and prepared some finger foods: the inevitable cheese platter, a veggie platter, a shrimp cocktail platter, and some crackers.
Mike brought the necessary libations to make Gin Martinis and Cosmpolitans. I contributed a bottle of Green Chartreuse, with which I made a few Green Dragons for both me and Alan.
When Mike was about to arrive with Cathy, he called ahead so we could turn the disco lights off, kill the music, and have everybody hide in the dancing room with the french doors shut. This was a surprise party :) Cathy and Mike walked in, and Cathy looked around, saw my furniture completely moved around, and 3 people sitting on the couch in either a cocktail dress or in a shirt and tie, and simply commented "you've moved things around." In spite of that, and the presence of a table full of hors d'ouevres for far more than the 5 people now present in the room, she didn't suspect anything was up!
I eventually suggested we go into the other room "where I've cleared some space to play DDR!". When she walked in, everyone yelled "surprise!", the disco light went on, and the music started thumping. She looked pleasantly surprised that we'd thrown her a surprise dance party for her birthday :)
Unfortunately, even though I had my camera out and wanted people to photodocument the night, there were no pictures of people dancing! All I got was an empty room with the disco light, but no action. Plenty of people did dance though, including myself, and it was a lot of fun.
I never did get a head count, but I think by the time the night was over, there were 13 of us (Mike, Cathy, Katy, Shannon, Jack, Dan, Alan, Andrea, Steve, Marybeth, Becky, Jaime, and me). We wound down the music around 12 and people had generally left by 1am or so.
Early yesterday afternoon, Mike, Katy, and Shannon came by to help clean up, then hung out for awhile. After a brief respite I saw them again at 5pm Mass (we all slept in and missed the morning ones), then we reconvened over at Katy and Shannon's apartment for a nice casual dinner and an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
I definitely have to do the disco dance thing again, it was so much fun! Perhaps with more notice, we can get an even larger crowd.
From the center of the ceiling hung a mirror ball :)
After clearing out the living room completely and hanging lights, we went to work on the "lounge", hanging braided streamers. Katy contributed a really pimp lounge lampshade, seen here:
Preparations finished, they went home for awhile to get ready and change clothes, and I showered (remember, I'd been hiking and kind of smelled), then got groceries and prepared some finger foods: the inevitable cheese platter, a veggie platter, a shrimp cocktail platter, and some crackers.
Mike brought the necessary libations to make Gin Martinis and Cosmpolitans. I contributed a bottle of Green Chartreuse, with which I made a few Green Dragons for both me and Alan.
When Mike was about to arrive with Cathy, he called ahead so we could turn the disco lights off, kill the music, and have everybody hide in the dancing room with the french doors shut. This was a surprise party :) Cathy and Mike walked in, and Cathy looked around, saw my furniture completely moved around, and 3 people sitting on the couch in either a cocktail dress or in a shirt and tie, and simply commented "you've moved things around." In spite of that, and the presence of a table full of hors d'ouevres for far more than the 5 people now present in the room, she didn't suspect anything was up!
I eventually suggested we go into the other room "where I've cleared some space to play DDR!". When she walked in, everyone yelled "surprise!", the disco light went on, and the music started thumping. She looked pleasantly surprised that we'd thrown her a surprise dance party for her birthday :)
Unfortunately, even though I had my camera out and wanted people to photodocument the night, there were no pictures of people dancing! All I got was an empty room with the disco light, but no action. Plenty of people did dance though, including myself, and it was a lot of fun.
I never did get a head count, but I think by the time the night was over, there were 13 of us (Mike, Cathy, Katy, Shannon, Jack, Dan, Alan, Andrea, Steve, Marybeth, Becky, Jaime, and me). We wound down the music around 12 and people had generally left by 1am or so.
Early yesterday afternoon, Mike, Katy, and Shannon came by to help clean up, then hung out for awhile. After a brief respite I saw them again at 5pm Mass (we all slept in and missed the morning ones), then we reconvened over at Katy and Shannon's apartment for a nice casual dinner and an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
I definitely have to do the disco dance thing again, it was so much fun! Perhaps with more notice, we can get an even larger crowd.