I arrived two minutes past our agreed-upon time at the north Berkeley home of my dear friend Juliet, her husband, Donaldo and their teenage daughter Gardenia, where my birthday party was to take place. Juliet had expressed an uneasiness that I would actually be late to my own party, leaving her to greet guests she'd never before met who might show up at the time the party was to start, which was 3 o'clock in the beautiful Saturday afternoon.
In my life, I had already been late to two important parties in my honor. One was a bridal shower for a wedding that didn't take place, and one was a wedding that did take place. I was proud of my prompt arrival for this birthday party, seeing it as a sign of of maturity and acceptance of social norms involved in - I'm getting sidetracked.
Juliet and I got crackin' at unpacking the food I'd brought, and setting out plastic bottles of mineral water I bought only out of fear that people would think me just too mean if I served tap water. After all, I wasn't providing a drop of alcohol for anyone, nor had I allowed even one soft drink because I don't drink them so why should anyone else, and they can be addictive, at least the one I like is and it is diet Coke which I drink whenever I can get my hands on it but do not keep it in my home. I can't even write about sparkling water with "natural fruit flavors", nor do I approve of fruit juices that aren't fresh-squeezed or pressed. All of this is yet another of the reasons my unborn children are lucky.
A person who normally would be unlikely to arrive on time and who did get to Juliet and Donald's house before any other guest arrived, and who was bringing my birthday cake, and the plates and forks with which everyone would be eating, was my dear friend Jayne. Her arrival was followed shortly by that of my dear friend Roverta and her two guests I had never met before, Ana and Leopold. The day of my party, which is not my actual birthday, was Ana's birthday, her 89th, so Roverta had brought a large birthday cake along with halvah, dolmas and tabbouleh. Donaldo and Leopold went outside to male-bond. Ana and Jayne had female-bonded instantly and were talking intensely, leaving Juliet, Roverta and me to get in each other's way as we tried to do everything at once until the doorbell rang, heralding the arrival of my dear friends, Capsy and Nervonica who came bearing an elegant eggplant terrine.
There was a problem with the drinks table which had been set up in a hurry with a few bottles of mineral water, a few glasses, and my dish of sliced fruit and fresh herbs which, I was told, no one knew what do to with. I realized I had expected my guests to know that the fruit and/or herbs was/were to be put into a glass and mashed around the bottom to release oils and juices, although I'd forgotten to add an implement with which to do the mashing, then ice and mineral water added, and that omission is what pushed me into a state of confusion that lasted for hours.
While Juliet wrote instructions on how to use the items on the drinks table, the female-bonded Jayne and Ana were at the cake and sweets table opening the box containing the very large cake Roverta had ordered for Ana's and my birthday but they ran into trouble and caused the cake to slide off its foundation and a large fault to split open the top and ooh, boy, Roverta was mad. I suppose no one should have opened that box until the right time, not even one of the birthday girls, although had I known what Jayne and Ana were up to, I would have been right there with them. Someone did a nice job of patching up the cake and afterwards we were allowed to finger up lashings of frosting that had wobbled off the cake which led to why not have some of that cake right now since there's a gap in the top of it that fairly screams it wants to be busted completely open. After I washed my hands thoroughly, I scooped up cake with one hand and ate it, and more. Juliet wanted me to use a plate, but it was my party and I'd eat with my fists if I wanted to.
More tomorrow.
I'll just add that it looked really perfect that you *grabbed* a handful of that cake with your bare hand and just held it and ate it out of your hand. I think I got over my need to have you use a plate in a nanosecond when I saw how perfect this was. This was YOU doing exactly what that cake was calling you to do. Plus, when else were you going to be able to poke your whole hand into a 3-layer fancy gush-goo cake with a frosting photo of Ana and Leopold on top (which managed to survive the EQ fault and cake grab intact)? Afterall, this was your party and you could cry if you want to, or grab into the heaven-cake which already had a VERY altered appearance from the top two layers sliding off the bottom layer and then having Jayne and I each try to massage it back into place without much success.
ReplyDelete-Juliet