One of the paradoxically best and worst things about December is the constant rush of parties to attend. It is all at once exciting, boring, entertaining, and exhausting. Some of my favorite and most embarrassing moments have come at holiday parties. Sometimes those moments are one and the same. I'd like to suggest that I've grown up enough that I don't make a fool of myself at parties anymore, but I don't want to lie to you. It's even odds that I'm going to say or do something stupid, and I know it.
I'm pretty sure I survived all four hours of this year's Rotary holiday party without making an ass of myself. I didn't hide out to accomplish that, either. I was one of the organizers, and my buddy and I arrived early to the hostess' showplace house to help set up and make plans. The third member of our social committee beat us there and had already helped arrange chairs and claimed the fun job of making sure everyone had a drink in their hands. My buddy was supposed to hang up coats, and I was tasked with grabbing everyone's pot luck dishes, and setting them up around the table. No one stuck with their jobs all night, and we ended up running around doing whatever needed doing. Then we stayed until everyone had left, to clean up and put the furniture back in place. I never sat down once. I mostly stood, pacing around a territory that covered about two hundred square feet. Now I feel like I must have fallen down a flight of stairs when I wasn't looking. I'm wiped out and sore. But what a night.
I've spent this entire calendar year getting to know the Rotary clubs in this town. From the moment I walked in back in January, I recognized that these people were my long-lost family. There has not been a day I've spent with them that was wasted time. But while I have gotten to know several people very well, there was still a large population in our club that I barely knew. Tonight was a giant leap forward to remedying that problem. I talked to a lot of people who were absolutely fascinating and endearing. Lots of them have been in the club for many years, and in this town for even longer. I talked to a retired veterinarian who has lived in his house a mile or so from me since 1961, back when the main thoroughfare was a tiny rural road. I talked to a man who used to be an air force pilot, flying transports in the 1960s, who told me great stories about being on alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Our club photographer has tried to retire multiple times, getting out of full time portrait photography, but she keeps getting drawn back in for projects like making postcards of the local area that sell all over town, and most recently she was commissioned to put giant photos of town in the newly remodeled bank three blocks from me. (I can't wait to see them in place... that might be another rotary social opportunity, to have an installation "opening" for her.) Several people in the club are highly involved with non-profit organizations, which provided compelling conversation. And of course most of us had kids or grandkids to brag about. I've had plenty of shy nights, where I holed up in the corner of a couch, barely talking to anyone, mostly because I barely knew the party attendees. Not so tonight. I spoke with almost everyone tonight, and it was glorious.
No comments:
Post a Comment