Come On Over!

So it was a pretty good weekend, in terms of seeing friends and celebrating the fact (all weekend!) that Treasa and John are getting married. I have decided I like house parties very much. Very much indeed. I always like going to the ABL party, and since five sevenths of the actual ABL were here this weekend, it was a lot like being there, except it was here. Does that make sense? I like house parties so much, in fact, that I spent part of the weekend wishing I had a house my own self, so that I could have a party. I don’t want to go through looking for a house or buying a house or, heaven forfend, getting a mortgage on a house. None of that. I don’t want to do any renovating, either. I just want to answer the phone one day and have this conversation:

Ring ring.

Chiara:Hellllo?

Anonymous and Highly Benevolent Person: Hello, is this Chiara?

Chiara: Sure is.

AHBP: Okay, well, you have just won, on the basis of your being a halfway decent person who has generally good intentions even though sometimes you don’t follow through so well, a house. A house in a very nice part of Seattle, shops and cafes and PCC and the library and the post office, right near the busline to your work but not on a busy street. It has a yard but nothing you have to really take care of, lots of windows and highly energy efficient appliances, and is on the same street as all your closest friends. They won houses too. Also, we moved all your stuff for you.

Chiara: Is that why I’m sitting in an empty apartment with none of my stuff?

AHBP Yes. We got rid of all the stuff you’ve been meaning to get rid of and only kept the things you want. Also, this house is free. Also, it has built in bookshelves. All you have to do to live there is to be hospitable and generous and to do a little better on that following through thing.

Chiara Wow, thanks! I’m vowing to be a better person right this very minute, as I am so thankful for your benevolence! You, whoever you are, are totally invited to my house party!

AHBP: Can’t wait!

Chiara: So, next week, Saturday, around seven? Is pizza okay with you? Um, can you hold on a minute? There’s someone knocking at my door.

AHBP: Oh, that’s just the limo we sent.

That’s what I want. Simple, right? I’ll let you guys know when that happens, and then you, much like AHBP, are totally invited to my housewarming party. No, don’t bring a present. I just want to see your face.

But anyway. Anyway, it was great to see everyone of course, and we spent quite a bit of time sitting around and talking and eating…three of my favorite things, as regular readers will attest. We took a walk around lovely Ballard and ate yummy dinners together. Screened Carl’s Reality Show. Went to Folklife on Sunday and saw some taiko drummers, Polynesian dancers, wooden kayaks, and elephant ears. Saw some kids playing in the big fountain.

Saw lots of crafty things, including some very stylish glasses made out of kitchen strainers.

I feel like last year when we went we participated a lot more in the various performances, but this year I mostly wanted to hang out with my friends, you know? If I happened to be at a big outdoor festival, well, so be it. I did like the taiko drummers very much…there was this one girl who was just whaling on this huuuuuge drum, and having just the greatest time. I decided, immediately, to become a taiko drummer. I too would like to whale.

After wandering around in various sub-groups we met up with Anna and Treasa, who for some reason were ready to do something other than lie on the living room floor softly whimpering after a marathon trip to Ikea for living room blinds (which Anna very nicely later put up after dinner). We were right there at the Seattle Center, you know, and having had our fill or hippies and Goths for the moment, decided to check out the Pacific Science Center.

Now, you know there’s nothing quite as fun as a trip to the science museum, right? (Right?) If there is, it’s going to the science museum with a whole passel of science nerds. A nice mix of physicists, chemists, and mathematicians ought to do nicely.

Right here we have a physicist, an engineer, and way in the back, a mathematician

They will take great joy in modifying the exhibits to suit their ideas of how things should be done, and they will be full of fascinating facts. I wouldn’t do it any other way. Usually when I do this sort of thing I have only the benefit of one physicist, so you can imagine how great it was to have an assortment from which to choose. This is even more true if there is a French Canadian Science of Roller Coasters exhibit which involves several puke-inducing little rides. Oh, man. That’s the best. There was also a little thing that showed why people vomit when they get dizzy…it has to do with your body thinking it’s being poisoned somehow. The best part was that you could press a button and make this model of a person throw up the contents of his imaginary stomach. That’s all fine and good, but the best part was that it made, you guessed it, very disgusting horking sounds. All for education’s sake. Everything was in French, so I liked to imagine that the puke sounds were too. I got a good chance to listen to the puking because Carl leaned up against the hurl button for about five minutes, looking around and wondering where all the sounds were coming from.

You’ll be happy to know, I flatter myself, that I did not add to the aural mayhem myself, even when I was riding a bike upside down. Can you believe it? G-Force, baby. What you do is get on this bike that’s attached to a circular track and they strap you in and you pedal real hard, or if you’re Chiara you pedal kind of hard and the girl running this thing keeps going “Pedal pedal pedal! I said, pedal pedal pedal!” and you almost make it to the top of the circle but then you go down and it gets a little scary and you go “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” and then you finally get to go all the way around and then you can’t stop, and you keep going around and around and the girl running it starts getting peeved and yelling “Brake!” and you go “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” in a sort of crazed out of control whinny and then finally you find the brake and slow down and then laugh at Rob and Carl for being too tall to fit into the special bike thing. Pretty exciting for a Sunday afternoon, is what I’m saying. G-Force! Upside down bike rinding! Pedal pedal pedal! Eeeeeeeee!

Eeeeeeeeeee!

I also got to go to the Butterfly Zoo that they have there and have a butterfly come to rest on my sleeve.

At one with nature I am.

But in terms of nature-show type activities, I’d have to say it was…no, not the naked mole rats, though those are always good…the boa constrictor eating a rat. I’d never seen this before and so plunked myself down on the floor with about six eight year olds (and their squeamish parents) and watched the whole thing. Thankfully the rat was already dead…I like nature shows very much but I’m not completely convinced I could watch a live constriction, you know? The snake just distended its jaw and grabbed it (by the head, so it wouldn’t get hair stuck in its throat) and carried it around for a while, at one point actually slamming it against the glass wall of its box, and at another point spitting it back out and getting a fresh grip. Then it just swallowed the whole thing, sloooooowly, down to the tail. That was the weirdest part, to see the rat tail sticking out of the snake mouth. The eight year olds all agreed. I had a very fraught discussion with a little girl in which she asked me if the rat was already dead, and if, in the wild, “the snake and the rat wrestled, the snake would win.” A couple kids asked where the rats came from, and I struggled not to say “They grow on trees! Already dead!” I looked up and noticed that all my friends had wandered off…I had run over to the naked mole rats and alerted them to the imminent rodent degustation, and they came over, but apparently wanted to be with the pretty butterflies than with the snake. I was really excited about the whole thing, but don’t think I don’t know it’s a little weird and gross to watch a snake eat a rat. I know. I’m aware. It’s gross to write about it too, isn’t it. Okay. It is. You’re right.

So we came home on the bus and fixed dinner and Anna made my absolute favorite thing that she makes, which is Special Juju Tuna Mac, and I don’t know what she does but it is so good. And yesterday, I honestly did not leave my house and spent the entire day in bed, reading and napping and feeling a little sick to my stomach. It wasn’t as great as you might expect, I kind of wish I’d actually done something with my day. But oh well. It was very good to all be together, I must say, and I’m really excited that John and Treasa had everyone come down, and that we’re all going to be at their wedding in July (I have to get tickets for that, right this minute). I can’t wait to go down to the Bay Area next month. I love my friends. I miss them. I want them all to come to my house party.