Party == good.

First evealone and ralmathon came over, then Darkside and Clover showed up. Clover had to go to work.

Dawn called with an ETA of whenever she got done decorating yard, etc., then called again in a bit of a panic because her nephew, one of Darth T. Rex's kids, had been skedaddled to the hospital. We wished her all good things, and told her not to stress over the party.

She eventually did show up.

Nephew likes carrot sticks, especially with ranch dressing. For future reference: for next party, get the five-pound sack of carrots, and plastic bowls and spoons for the beef stew (which was an enormous hit).

Darkside made the crowbar joke. I told him that the joke hurt. Votania told him how Not Cool it was.

Votania took Nephew out trick-or-treating around the apartment complex.

Attempted to play fighting game with Darkside. Failed miserably in the attempt, got a little grouched, put down controller, and quickly retreated to room. Evealone and Darkside eventually followed. Only felt particularly comfortable talking to Darkside. Explained that I felt bad about not knowing how to play that, and even worse over making such a big deal of not knowing how to play the damn games.

Darkside dragged me out to the living room (literally), and we learned together. I called a halt to it when I felt my thumb becoming sore, pre-blister.

Votania and Nephew and I sorted the Halloween candy into Easily Tampered With, Suspicious, and OK, and ditched the Easily Tampered and Suspicious.

Eventually we watched anime. Before we could, though, we had to do interesting things with the VCR's, as Votania's seems to be no longer working. Mine was extracted from my room and plugged in. marxdarx came home, and had some stressy moments over Votania's hair: I'd made her hair up to look as if she'd used the poinky ponytails as paintbrushes to paint her skyclad Night costume, and used water-soluble paint. Marx's immediate reaction was "Acrylic!!!" and therefore pictured her hair cut as it would have to be to shear that much acrylic paint out.

Demon City Shinjuku. There was perhaps too much giggleage. Nephew was sent to bed within the first bit, as there was too much strong langage. Leaned against Darkside; almost fell asleep.

There was a break in the middle of it, where things were turned on, and shuffling-about was accomplished. Darkside moved from the overcrowded couch to chair on other side of room; there was a chair next to him, which was mine. The crowbar joke was made again (this is a long-running joke), and again Votania made with the smackdown.

Partway through that, or at the end of that, the crowd showed up. digitalambience came with jedi_rezboy, along with Bald Guy and this other guy Chris, who was unknown to me. evealone took over the TV again with his Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, or whatever the game had been.

There was much uproarage and jello shots. evealone, Darkside, and I were the only ones who had remained completely sober throughout the entire event; Darkside and I will be the only ones both sober and without hangovers, by tomorrow. The crowd eventually began to be too much, even after digitalambience had left to go on a walk (after the 11 jello shots) with jedi_rezboy to supervise affairs; I disappeared into my room, after telling Darkside that the crowd was too much.

Dawn followed, and then Darkside. He observed that the drawing tacked to the wall had been originally given to Votania. Explained that it had been passed along to me.

Ducked into restroom, and both friends departed. Emerged, verified that I was indeed OK (just water catching up with me), and Dawn came back in; eventually Darkside and Neighbor came. Told them that for them, among the inner circle, there was always room with me; they never crowd me. Happy chat was established.

evealone and Bald Guy decided to join in the happy chat as well. I hid under a pillow and communicated with Darkside, who whispered back that I was far too nice, and as this was my room, should exercise my rights. I dismissed the sources of loud/crowdedness from room, and conversation amongst the nearest and dearest resumed.

Eventually reached the threshold of 'tired' where I knew the party was OVER. Wandered to living room, informed Bald Guy and evealone that the party was over, and bade them farewell.

More conversation with the usual suspects in my room. Eventually moved out to the living room, when Dawn heard a noise; she wound up tidying and making the place look liveable again, within the span of five minutes.

It's great just sitting with the guys and talking. Would probably have been more comfortable had I been in a position to be falling asleep, preferably in contact with Darkside. Curious for a moment, I grabbed his right hand to see if my quasi-amber ring would fit on it; it did. When he realized that I was putting a ring on him, he removed his hand from mine and returned the ring. In a hurry. Reassured him that it was curiousity, not anything Evil and Scary; were it Evil And Scary, I'd have been grabbing at his left hand.

My general exhaustion came up. Yep, tired. Very much so.

There was general getting ready to leave. Darkside commented that I must indeed be tired, as I don't generally call him that. (I'd addressed him as "m'love", it having slipped past the censors, then apologized.)

The cat vomited on the rug. Dawn and I both flipped slightly, as cats do not interface well with chocolate. Fortunately, I found a chewed-up piece of pink ribbon in the mess, obviously from the balloon that Nephew'd been playing with since Grandma brought it over from Boss's day.

Nice long hug with Darkside. He's warm and sweet and cares. He made the crowbar joke again, and this time it wasn't a struggle to not hide my reaction. It made an impression on him. He held me, rather than the way he usually allows me to embrace him, standing passively by. He's just not good at showing how much he cares...

Recognition

Darkside and I have a number of running jokes. One of the primary ones is my use of endearments, specifically to him.

"Yes, dear," I say, about something.
"I'm not a deer!"
"Yes, moose."
"I'm not a moose!"

There are a variety of routines we go through, including squirrels, Mulder, Scully, and how his heart is NOT sweet. We added a new one today.

"Yes, honey."
"Would you stop calling me that!"
"Sure, bee vomit."

There was much amusement.

Darkside does recognize the difference, though, between my habitual use of endearments with anyone close to me, such as "dear", "sweetheart", "honey", et cetera, and my late-night lack of censor mouth.

Tonight I called him "m'love" at least twice that I was able to catch. After each one that I caught, I apologized.

He can hear and feel the difference between something that he can tease back and forth about with me, and something that's an integral part of me, and how I feel towards him. While expressions of my deep and abiding love for him are negotiable, and something that can be teased about it, there are certain things that are not free-form mutable expressions, fitting the tidiest pleasing form, but indicators of the love itself. My addressing him as "m'love" was one of the latter; my calling him "bee vomit" is one of the former.

Have taken to calling him "Sunshine" much, which is far better a nickname for the place he fills in my life than Darkside. Have not yet called him by the private nickname that I know that no one else should hear. Equally as clean as "Sunshine", possibly cleaner, but ... personal.

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oh yes, mentioned hypnosis, submission.

Party

All in all, I think the party was a success.


Clover got to have a bit of fun before going to work.

digitalambience went home drunk.

jedi_rezboy went home escorting him, although the crowd may have been a bit much.

Chris the random guy got to do jello shots and hang with interesting people.

evealone got to kick butt on the skateboarding game.

Bald Guy got to hang out with people, which he hadn't gotten to do for a while.

ralmathon had fun and got to spend time with his good friends. And he got fed!

Dawn had fun and got to talk to friends.

votania got to dress up in an exceptionally cool costume and hang out with people.

Nephew got to go trick-or-treating and hang out with lots of friends.

marxdarx I think got to catch the tail end of the anime? and unfortunately got more of the loud part of the party than the cozy-just-friends-hanging bit, which was about par for the course for most friends-hanging stuff, only with better food. Wish he'd been less stressed over non-party-related factors and more able to enjoy it.

Shamash was washed and kept in the bathroom as punishment for the beginning of the party before anyone got there for jumping on the altar and knocking over a glass bottle which spilled oil and left shards of glass in Votania's closet, then slept through much of the party, and enjoyed that of it which he did get to interact with, except for the part about eating the balloon ribbon and barfing.

Darkside got to hang with his best friends, share good food, play video games, geek-talk, get a backrub, teach his best friend about the playing of fighting games, watch anime, and watch other people getting drunk. He went home far too late, grinning.

I got to spend time with my best friend, have all of the above fun, learn some of the basic Street Fighter moves, and have the satisfaction that the party went off well. Oh, and I got Darkside's cellphone number, thanks indirectly to ralmathon's conception of the Alaska version of the Civil War, and the good offices of Caller ID.

The Alaskan Civil War

My neighbor and schoolmate ralmathon and his friends had an ongoing joke about how the Civil War would take place were it happening in Alaska. It's too cold to fight in the winter, you see, and in the summer no one would want to, so...

...In the winter, the two sides would be stationed at home by the phones with a phone list of the opposite side. They'd call the other guys up.

Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Ri--

"Hello?"

"Bang."

"Aww, shit. I'll go get my gun." *bang*

Amusing.

http://capitolrecords.com/snoopdogg/shizzolator/ , when applied to my journal, generates immortal phrases such as, "Ghaaa, wack fayoumis."

Mmm, warm bath.

Was starting to feel less than optimal. Wound up taking a long hot bath, because I felt too lazy to shower. Hot bath, plus The Great Rip-Off, my favorite teen book which combines psychic phenomena, computers, intelligence on the parts of the characters, and romance involving an introverted prickly genius male, equals a happy, sane, balanced, and relaxed Lunatic.

Stuffed animals

Nephew's two favorites are Bug, a little blue beanie dragon, and Bear, a teddy bear.

Mine were Old Cat, Fraige, and Wefrey.

Unhappily...

...Darkside doesn't like snakes. Damn!

Kink

I prefer naughty animation to live-action naughty video, as the picture quality's better, and often the writing's better as well. It takes more effort to produce a decent animation than an indecent live-action video, so just as much effort's put into the indecent animations as well.

The Church of the Hopeful Door

Every now and then, I re-post this experience, because it's one of the things that makes me who I am, and makes me not who I am not.

In the spring of the year 2000, sometime when there was still snow on the ground, but after the Ides of March, I gained myself a fiance. It must have been sometime around April first, because I was just being presented as his fiancée... I was 19 at the time, and just rediscovering my faith in the divine, choosing to be part of the Wiccan religious model, as that was my religion of best fit.

BJ's mother had made the ruling that while BJ lived under her roof, he would attend church. All right. The first weekend we were spending time together on a very regular basis, I went with him to the Friends Church to announce the engagement as well as have him go to church, ran into some people I didn't expect to see, and all in all had a delightful time, discovering that one actually could get in touch with the Divine inside a church.

The next weekend, however, he and I went to his family's regular church [sadly, the link that I found at one time has gone dead; their bylaws, however, have been preserved by the good offices of Google, and may be found by searching on the church name "Door of Hope"; they will also be appended as a comment] with a friend of his who'd spent the night. I was driving my cute little red Toyota Tercel station wagon Bonnie, and it was a beautiful morning.

George and BJ and I walked into the church. I immediately felt uncomfortable, which made me feel even more uncomfortable, because I had no idea why I was not feeling comfortable; I'd felt comfortable in the Friends Church; I felt comfortable in the big happy church that my sister's violin practice used to take place in; I felt comfortable at Hidden Hill... what was wrong with me?

It didn't occur to me at that moment that it might not have been me that had the problem.

I sat down in the lobby, pretty much ignoring the guy passing out flyers at the door, and began to attempt to attune myself with the place, to get in touch with the Divine, to be happy and peaceful and light. Eventually, I felt comfortable enough to walk into the main meeting room, which featured a loud rock band and a bunch of singing people and overhead projectors. I walked in just as the song was ending, and so got to hear the prayer leader's next comments. He made happy noises at the congregation for the positive prayers and that sort of thing, and requested that the energy and prayers for this next song be dedicated to the people of Islam.

Small warning bell: I listened closely.

"Islam has been Satan's playground for too long!" he intoned. "Let's reclaim Islam for GOD!"

It was at that moment that I turned around abruptly, and told George and BJ that if they were getting a ride home with me, I was leaving NOW.

I strode out through the lobby, through the double glass doors, and was in the car quickly. I waited for George, who was a slow walker, to catch up, then wanted to know where BJ was; if he wasn't in the car within one minute, he could get a ride home with his mother and his father and his brother. George told me that BJ was fixing the door: in my haste to get out of the place, I'd made the door closing smoothly/quietly mechanism fall apart.

Afterwards, BJ tried to explain to me that the prayer leader hadn't actually MEANT what it sounded like, just that there were plenty of people perverting the true spirit of Islam, and it was time that they stopped doing that. Right. That's not how it sounded. That's not how it felt. That's not a church I'm ever returning to, at least not alone, and not without a LOT of holy water.

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I really wish there was a better way of doing things than having him moved out to the couch when he's already asleep.