A Lindy Groove Christmas

Over to Lindy Groove for the LG Christmas party. Fabulous and sad, since this is the last performance that Barbara Morrison will give before moving far far away to the midwest.

Dancing was great. Anytime His Vickness and Evincerator are there, I know it's going to be a good night. HV is such a good lead, and really shares the dance, and his wife doesn't mind sharing his floor time. And E is so funky and unexpected, and his girlfriend doesn't mind sharing him either.

Met Jack, who apparently does a lot of DJing in the WCS world. Was waiting for a good song, and for him to be free, to ask him to dance. And he beat me to it! I love it when that happens.

Just about all my old favorites were out in force. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to dance with White StretchJ. And now he's moving to Las Vegas for a bit. But I'm sure he'll be back here for vacations and such. Turns out that Philly is going to start a westside monthly blues venue. BenY conned me into a dance ... I protested that it would be too fast. He said it wouldn't be. I shouldn't have believed him. It was fast. But BenY is such a good leader that it didn't really matter. Note to self: must do more cardio.

Fabulous fabulous night. I was sad when it was over. Lance did a very good thing when he started this club.

Christmas behind the Orange curtain

Down to Costa Mesa tonight with Satine to check out the OC Mormon Choir that I've heard so much about. Drive down was fun. It's been a while since I've chatted with Satine, and it was good to get to know her a little better.

The choir was ... good. As an amateur choir, it was certainly an accomplishment to put on a performance of that size and scope. And it was fun seeing Drummer Boy, Eric and a few o ther familiar faces singing so intently. And the children were really cute. Perhaps the best parts of the night were seeing that our seats were next to Salsera and her friend, and getting to listen to Satine sing the Hallelujah chorus. Satine really has a marvelous voice.

Chatted a bit with Salsera. Turns out that we were both headed out to Palm Springs for the same dance event. However, they'd cancelled most of the salsa portion of the program. It may turn out that she comes anyway, though. It would be fun to see a fmiliar face.

A high school Christmas party

What: Christmas PICU party
How: High School Prom Theme

Maybe the best slide show I've seen about work. Then and now pictures of colleagues. And then there was the results of the voting ...

Class Flirt ~ Farmhand
Most Likely To Do Compressions ~ Topper
Most Spirited ~ Sansalicious
Best Dressed ~ Baldy Metro
Prom Queen ~ Franny-poo
Prom King ~ Tan Shaggy

It was fun to see everyone dressed up. Some in evening dress. Some dressed like they did in high school. Case in point, Mr and Mrs Nine Yards came in jeans and t-shirts. Schmitty came in his letterman jacket (40+ years old). Jace and boyfriend came in 80's mod jackets and bolo ties. Hurricane R dressed as a Material Girl. Topper came in a hideously funny turquoise polka-dotted dress. And JoNG came in a tshirt printed with a tuxeda pattern.

Ahhh ... the people I work with know how to party. Some, like Tan Shaggy party a little too hard. But we're like a big, happy, occassionally dysfunctional, but highly productive family.

Oh Brother!

Took Spork out to dinner at Orris, my new favorite restaurant. Good to just sit down and catch up, just us two. Spork is my little brother, and when I remember how I used to tickle him when he was four, kid him as a child, mostly leave him along during his thuggish years, and see him mature ... well, it's almost impossible to reconcile the boy with the man. He's smart, successful, fun and funny, laid back, and yet very passionate about some things. He's been a mystery to me most of his life. But now he's just a joy to be with. Eventhough the patrons at the Japanese deli down the street may be distressed since he bought out every single bottle of Pietro dressing off the shelf!

Singing In The Season

A new Christmas season called for a new Christmas party ... one that I've been contemplating for a while now. Ever since going to Hella-Mormon's piano parties (where her handsome and musically talented guy friends [funny how I can't remember any of her non-LA girl friends except the roommate and our friends in common] would come down from Stanford, crowd around her piano, and sing song after song from her musical library of everything from the Beatles, to John Denver to Billy Joel, in parts no less ... well, ever since then, I've been wanting to throw a piano party of my own.

And then, earlier this year, Pilgrim Girl asked me to house her piano for her. She said that it was because their apartment was so small, and she never had time to practice since she should be devoting her time to her doctoral studies, and that it would be bad to put the instrument into storage. And I jumped at the chance. What a fortuitous event!

So, this summer saw me practicing some Christmas songs. Strange, I know. But that's what the plug-in headphones are for. My plan was to practice a couple of new songs every week from the rather simplistic book of medlies I had buried among the sonatinas. And really, my intentions were very very good. However, the time slipped away from me. And November saw me desperately scrambling to play catch up.

The evites were sent out, and people were excited. I did make it a point to talk to the guitar guys (Drummer Boy, Mr Giggles and Hoppe Skip and a Laugh) about playing along, since they'd been so much fun up at Arrowhead. And I tried to pull in as many musical folks as I could ... not only to hide my own deficiencies, but also to give people a chance to share their talents. Spent a couple late nights and dollars at Kinkos copying and fitting music to pages ... hymns, popular carols, favorite four-part music I've sung in choirs over the years, some old favorites, and Dona Nobis Pacem (my favorite song from the Exponent II Retreat). Cleared out all the funiture from my bedroom (yes, even my massive bed was taken down and stuffed into the closet), decorated a tree, and I was ready.

It was so great to see everyone. LisaG, who I never seem to see except at my Christmas party. Eric and Co from down south. Some new and old friends from outside LA. And all my favorite nearby people and some of their friends. Sharing potlucky food, catching up, choosing books to take home, greeting and meeting new faces. it was just great. And then we started moving people back for the singing. The Guitar Guys were fabulous. However, the real surprise was Improv-er, who sat down at the piano and played just about each of the 30 songs in my little songbook. Sometimes even transposing between keys at a glance. So I was able to toss my feelings of musical inadequacy out the window and just enjoy the singing. Not that I'm good at the singing, but I do really enjoy it.

And so this is the start of a new tradition for me. I admit that my family doesn't have many Christmas traditions. My parents are both immigrants and converts to the church. And while I know that my parents have done Christmases with all the trimmings ... Santa, big Christmas tree, lights on the front of the house, etc etc ... it never felt quite right. I remember taking up the mantle one winter when I was home from college (stockings and everything), but it was expensive and not all that much fun. I also remember one Christmas when everyone was so busy that Christmas eve found us without a tree. So, we put a pointsettia plant on top of a horizontally-tilted music stand instead and sang, "O Christmas Stand!" But that's neither here nor there.

These days, my family celebrates Christmas whenever we can all get together. With a nurse, a doctor and a law student, and about half of the family out of state, it's become a necessity.

However, the joy of singing in the season of Christmas is one that just fills me with joy. This rite feels very right. And so, until next year ...