Possibly Still Drunk

Today’s post was supposed to be about a pie I made yesterday for National Pie Day. However, my pie came out all soupy-like and so we’ll have to save that recipe for National Soup Day, whenever that is. Anybody?

So instead I’m going to share with you a party idea because I’ve been to two awesome parties in all of 7 days, and it turns out parties are fun!! Which is too bad because I’ve already filled my quota for the year. Oh well.

Last night’s neighborhood party was originally billed as a “Winter Food Festival and Musicale,” which sounded really scary to me, the “musicale” part at least, like I might be required to sing, dance, or some frightening combination thereof, possibly with some sort of squash involvement. I think the last time I did those things together was in the chorus of a middle school production of Annie Get Your Gun in which I was dressed up as an “Indian” and we shan’t speak any more of that incident.

Luckily, when enough people threatened not to show up to last night’s event, the theme evolved into more of a talent show. Or talentless talent show—you decide. You got to pick your “talent,” the sillier the better, but everyone had to take the stage for 60 seconds. Talents ran the gamut from actual talents to “only when you’re drunk” types of talents, but what I learned is: a) humiliating yourself in front of strangers is a great ice-breaker; b) it’s true what they say, that everybody is a unique snowflake carved by space and time in delightfully unpredictable ways; and c) rolling up your rug for the occasion is a good idea unless you want whipped cream spilled all over it.

Some highlights of the night: A hilarious interpretation of “I Cain’t Say No” from Oklahoma!, a tap-dancing demonstration, a poetry reading, magic tricks, a pasta-making demo, an improv stand-up bit, a rousing rendition of “Lonely House” from Street Scene with piano accompaniment, speed-cartooning, beer-tasting, juggling, an unbelievably ballsy male striptease that fell mercifully short of unveiling any actual balls. There was a pavlova-assembly demonstration, complete with a very messy battle between the culinary school graduates to see who could whisk up some whipped cream the fastest. (In the battle between the CIA v. Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, can you guess who won?) One of the hosts even played a round with himself on the recorder, ventriloquist-style. Things wound down with some blues guitar and a lovely version of "Blackbird."

Even I, hardly a showman, managed to pull off a killer card trick. That is, until everyone plied the secrets out of me later on in the evening with alcohol and flattery. At next year’s party, I will fool no one. Oh, and there was food, too. How could I forget? Pot pie and grits and mint juleps. Some sort of yummy pomegranate concoction. Apparently everyone in attendance was multi-talented because the food was excellent, too. So if you want to throw a fun party, I highly recommend something like this.

Comments

[Megan Carroll]

My husband and I are laughing... great posts... sorry that you are still drunk... we get that way too sometimes. It happens.

[Amy]

Sounds like a circus. I like it!

For National Pie Day, Paul said he needed to run an errand. His errand turned out to be a coconut cream pie. There are few things I love more than pie - he's one of them. You can see why.

[sarah]

Pie. Soup. Who cares! that stuff was delicious! those were some fun times indeed!

[Husband]

The children ran wild in the streets the next day. The parents were all too hung over to notice.