so, a couple of people may have laughed at me last month when i first mentioned having a themed new year's eve party at our new place, as a drunken celebration-cum-housewarming gathering. we'd been playing a lot of rock band when the theme inspiration occurred; kind of like, 5-8 hours a day of rock band, every day. so naturally the idea was to have a 'rockin' new year's party with the couch in the basement crew and our little plastic guitarist, longshot. i took it one step further and decided everyone should dress up like a rock star for the party. i was so enthusiastic about it, i nearly peed.
this was about 2.5 weeks before 12/31/07. then some things happened. our ps3 wireless guitar broke. longshot's xbox guitar broke. the equipment exchange program set up for such unfortunate individuals and their broken dreams seemed like there was no way it could possibly be completed in time for the party. people were already rsvp-ing. what were we to do? book them, and they will come - but what will they play?
then kz and i flew home for some holiday stuff, and got our new little puppers. then i spent a week doing nothing but waking up in the middle of the night and cleaning up pee and being a human chew toy, albeit a blissfully happy one, even if i smelled of poo. then i got really sick, since 4 hours of sleep a night does not a strong immune system make. then i flew home with little cozzy as my carry-on, which was harrowing but successful. in the meantime, the ps3 guitar exchange program with harmonix had worked beautifully and we had a new guitar ready to roll out for the party. kz ingeniously did a temp fix on the broken one so we could play bass and have 4 rockstars playing at once! i was swooning with happiness.
the day of the fete was suddenly nigh, and i had to get my bronchitis-ridden ass into the holiday spirit, voiceless though i was - what kind of lead singer was i going to make? i had to feverishly finish some unpacking, clean the house, watch the dog, make fucking crudite and go shopping and pick out the best of the lousy $10 champagne, all while voluntarily OD-ing on robitussin and trying not to berate my tired husband who was vacuuming and listening to my hoarse tirade of whining with marked stoicism. i'd had no time to shop for any accoutrements for my costume, which felt like the utmost hypocrisy, since i had been lambasting any invitee who would give me the time of day about how they totally HAD to get dressed up, even if it was just for my sake. we wolfed down a quick lukewarm dinner from boston market, i drank my starbucks in the shower and chased it with more robitussin, and then i set about making a miniskirt out of an old shapeless beach coverup that was 4 sizes too big. the first guest arrived while i was only on my first coat of mascara, and i still had to put out all the crackers and veggies, and we'd had no time yet to slice the cheese and sausage or defrost any cocktail shrimp.
magically, once people started pouring in, the party took on a life of its own. so many of them were decked out in the greatest costumes:
and i found myself milling about with my friends, a hendricks and tonic in one hand and a mic in the other. i managed to belt out a couple of tunes over the course of the evening, wrapping it up strategically with "roxanne."
after that, my larynx was spent. we had a great time with the two guitars, and rock band was up and running from 6 pm to 4 am straight.
people were tag-teaming in and out, taking breaks to fuel up on more beer
and make snowmen
and snuggle with cozzy
and dance around in their wives' skirts
or whatever other mayhem you can conjure up.
at points, things appeared to get a little out of hand
and our group band effort, 'synthetic zeppelin gas,' even ranked in the top 50 for a couple of songs. we tuned in for 3 minutes of robot dick clark, toasted 2008, and launched the ps3 again. i had so much fun, i forgot i felt terminally ill.
the next day, we all went for a brunch that seemed to last an eternity, but due to the good company, i didn't mind
so once again my awesome friends saved the day, turning what could have been a lame and stressful get-together into a total blast i'll always remember. it was the best new year's i've had in the past decade, that's for sure!
