Party Animal
Nov. 11th, 2017 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse'm turning 50 one week from today. It's a big milestone and I've been thinking about how part of me would really like to throw a party. The neurotic part starts to worry that I don't actually have that many friends. The lazy part of me is like, "Whoa, that's a lot of work, man. Plus you'd have to clean the house." Then the first part comes back and mutters, "But 50 is a big deal, right?"
Today, I was presented with a solution. A friend of mine, Tyler Tork (his pen name) invited me to his birthday party where he's turning 55. Tyler and I, both being writers, have friends in common, so I thought, "There you go. The two bird problem solved with one party."
And it was fun.
Although I got very lost trying to get there. The party was thrown at the GPS (Geek Partnership Society)'s space in Northeast Minneapolis. Northeast is not a neighborhood I know terribly well on my best days. I don't own a smartphone so, speaking of the OTHER kind of GPS, I don't have access to a talking inter-active map. I usually compensate pretty well by having a decent working knowledge of Minneapolis/St. Paul and extensively availing myself of Google maps and note taking before I head out places. Google Map directions seemed pretty convinced that NE Broadway DIRECTLY connected to Jackson. It didn't. After an hour of driving through the Presidential streets, I called Shawn and begged her to look up where Jackson was supposed to be NEAR. Between Central and Monroe. Well, I managed to find one street that seemed to be something else where Jackson would be, but turning down it DID take me to NE Jackson and from there the building was easy to find.
That was less fun.
But Andre/Tyler had a good spread of food and I got to talk to people I knew fairly well, but hadn't hung out much with socially: Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Michael O'Leary, Jr., Conrad Zero, Karl Jones, and Dreamwitdth's ownsraun (and his wife, Irene.) We talked about Chuck Tingle, erotica writing (like the nitty-gritty of dealing with things like Amazon's search functions), and jumped around squeefully about Andre/Tyler's new book deal.
A good time was had. I'd say it worked darn well for a substitute party for myself.
Today, I was presented with a solution. A friend of mine, Tyler Tork (his pen name) invited me to his birthday party where he's turning 55. Tyler and I, both being writers, have friends in common, so I thought, "There you go. The two bird problem solved with one party."
And it was fun.
Although I got very lost trying to get there. The party was thrown at the GPS (Geek Partnership Society)'s space in Northeast Minneapolis. Northeast is not a neighborhood I know terribly well on my best days. I don't own a smartphone so, speaking of the OTHER kind of GPS, I don't have access to a talking inter-active map. I usually compensate pretty well by having a decent working knowledge of Minneapolis/St. Paul and extensively availing myself of Google maps and note taking before I head out places. Google Map directions seemed pretty convinced that NE Broadway DIRECTLY connected to Jackson. It didn't. After an hour of driving through the Presidential streets, I called Shawn and begged her to look up where Jackson was supposed to be NEAR. Between Central and Monroe. Well, I managed to find one street that seemed to be something else where Jackson would be, but turning down it DID take me to NE Jackson and from there the building was easy to find.
That was less fun.
But Andre/Tyler had a good spread of food and I got to talk to people I knew fairly well, but hadn't hung out much with socially: Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Michael O'Leary, Jr., Conrad Zero, Karl Jones, and Dreamwitdth's own
sraun (and his wife, Irene.) We talked about Chuck Tingle, erotica writing (like the nitty-gritty of dealing with things like Amazon's search functions), and jumped around squeefully about Andre/Tyler's new book deal.A good time was had. I'd say it worked darn well for a substitute party for myself.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-12 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-14 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-14 08:17 pm (UTC)Finding a substitute party sounds like a very clever plan, indeed. Locally, a few fans with birthdays in the same week (between Xmas and New Year's) organize a dinner out someplace that also serves beer. That kind of critical mass might be harder to acquire, though.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-14 10:32 pm (UTC)You're not local to me, are you? Because that also sounds like a lot of fun, though if you're not, it would likely mean I'd have to organize it... :-) I do notice a lot of other writers are Scorpios and I did once have a friend who organized a group "all Scorpios" party that was a lot of fun.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-14 10:48 pm (UTC)Cluster by sign, that works too!