Two Days, Four Parties

'Tis the season for holiday parties, I guess. Last night we were at Chris' company's holiday party at Touché. It was a good party, and people seemed to enjoy themselves - the only downside was the decibel level upstairs. The band made it so that I had to yell to have a conversation, so by night's end I was pretty hoarse. Late night number one down, one more to go.

Saturday, there were three parties at which we intended to make appearances. It ended up feeling like a progressive dinner, only without the food. We went to a friend's one-year-old son's birthday party in the afternoon, and were thankful these friends aren't Chuck E. Cheese people... I mean, I'm all for celebrating my friends' kids lives, and am happy to be "Aunt Jessie" to tons of munchkins I'm not related to, but I don't think I could stomach another Chuck E. Cheese party for a non-blood relation. That place is just a damned torture chamber for us non-procreators.

The next stop was a wine tasting birthday gathering for a college friend - she's the best kind of friend, in that it never matters how infrequently we see each other, we always pick up right where we left off. It was great to catch up with her a bit again, and we ended up talking with some of her friends with whom we share a passion for travel.

As if to extend that theme, the final stop of the night was the Bootsnall year-end bash. It was my first opportunity to meet the folks I'd been exchanging emails with for the last few months. Things are going swimmingly for the local travel website - they were expecting 200+ travelers from all over the country (all over the world?), when in years past their year-end parties were held at local bars and just included the friends they knew. It's amazing what can happen when you follow your passion... And it pays off. Hmm... I think it's that part about getting your passion to pay off that's the tricky bit.

So - two late nights in a row, we're now exhausted and are looking forward to a slow Sunday. We'll be watching the Portland Pilots in the morning, and working on our projects for the last Italian class in the afternoon. We still have no idea what we're going to do for the projects, but so far that's not daunting. Yet.