Par-tay

Saturday night I went to a house party. It was my first one since moving here. My friend Heidi invited some friends and family over to her house. It was mostly people from the spa and their spouses. I never even thought about it before going, but once I was there it was a real Bridget Jones moment for me. Add that to the general atmosphere of “shared history and inside jokes” and you can start to get a picture of my first hour. Everyone was super nice, but I was in wallflower observation mode. If I was going to have fun, it was going to take time and a drink.

That’s when one of the wheels fell off my wagon. Heidi smokes and says she is getting ready to quit. I decided to help her quit by making her cigarettes disappear a bit faster. It was disappointing to slip, but I decided not to beat myself up over it. It was one night and now it’s over. When I woke up this morning I felt awful, so it was a good reminder of why I quit in the first place. Anyway, back to the party…

Vegas Cornhole- Game On!!
Someone brought a game with them to the party. I still don’t know what it was called. It was really weird. It was similar in concept to horseshoes, I suppose. There were a couple of tall plastic ladder looking things and about 12 sets of balls connected with string. The idea is to stand at one end and toss a set of the balls at the ladder and try to get them to hang from one of the rungs. As you might imagine, the game was filled with all kinds of talk and innuendo about ball handling and t bagging and even a disgusting reference to something called a “dirty Sanchez” which I am NOT going to describe. I am just amazed no one’s car was hit. Personally, I thought it was more similar to the game cornhole.

Madonna was right!
At some point I was sitting outside and ended up talking to a couple of sisters, separately and then together about all kinds of things. They’re born and raised here in Vegas, which makes them a bit of an oddity as far as I can tell. So I talked to them about where they would want to live if they ever decided to move, more doctor referrals, and things like that. Ultimately, we all ended up talking about music. I listened to them talk about the different venues around town and where the best and worst places were to see a show. They were a lot of fun. Even though we listened to different bands (one of them was a huge Dave Mathews fan) we still found plenty to talk about. Music DOES make the people come together. Huh.

7$ Pyramid
Heidi was really good about taking pictures. She ended up taking a bunch. Everyone moaned and groaned about them after a while, but I decided to have a little fun with it. At one point I had gone inside to get something to drink and some of the people in the house had gotten to the point where they were singing along to the music that was playing. When I came back outside, I mentioned it to the girls and we talked about drunken people and the silly things they end up doing. I made some comment about getting them to build a pyramid for a picture. One of the girls bet me $5 that I couldn’t get them to do it.

I went inside and put this really pained look on my face. Someone looked at me and asked what was wrong. (Remember, I am the stranger here among these people.) I said, “You guys aren’t going to believe this, but Heidi wants another picture. She wants a pyramid.” The guys were ready. No hesitation at all. Their wives were a little more reluctant. I said that Heidi wasn’t going to give up until she got the picture (I don’t even know where Heidi was at the time.) Anyway, they decided to do it. Heidi shows up, finds out what we’re doing and decides she wants to do the splits in front of the pyramid. Cool! I opened the front door and stuck my head out and said “Get your money out cause we’re building a pyramid and Heidi is going to do the splits in front.” She was impressed enough that I pulled it off that she threw in an extra couple of dollars for the splits. I hope she sends me a copy of the pictures. They turned out well.

After the pyramid scheme, there were other feats of strength. One of the girls there was a cheerleader and a wee bit competitive. I’m not sure how the arm wrestling competition started; all I know is that I didn’t let her beat me on my left side. It was basically a draw. On the right side it wasn’t even close. Southpaw that I am, my right arm is useless. Then she and Heidi started talking about Karate and finally the karate competition video came out when Heidi totally screwed up her knee. At that point in the evening, you knew things were winding down.

I had a great time and I think I am finally on my way to widening my little circle of friends.