Aftermath Among the Beer Bottles

[akirlu]

davidlevine and kateyule safely seen off on the road home, after a very nice breakfast at Wild Wheat with scarlettina, and after a small expotition up the hill to Taste of Europe/Valley Harvest. Everyone was suitably impressed with the wide variety of weird and unfamiliar Eastern European groceries, and there were the usual pauses were everyone stood gazing up at some brightly-colored box or jar while trying to sound out the Cyrillic. I don't know how the owners of Taste of Europe feel about our treating their store as a tourist destination to take out-of-towners to, especially since there's always a lot of excited fannish exclaiming up and down the aisles as new discoveries are made, but I'm hoping the purchasing of products assuages any sting there might be.

I'm not fully convinced that our house really is big enough for a Clarion party, but, still and all, last night seems to have gone off quite well. Everyone seemed to have a good time and we -- inevitably -- wound up with more alcohol at the end than at the beginning. But don't let anyone kid you; a mid-season Clarion Party is Much Bigger than a winter-season Vanguard. I was constantly worrying about the insufficient seating, but everyone seemed quite content to squeeze into the kitchen doorway. And so we have discovered a weird new metric of party success: when you're finding that the shortest distance between the kitchen and the living room is by way of the side yard, you've got a successful party on your hands.

Man, am I tired though. But the upside of a Friday party is, once it's over, you still have the whole weekend to recover. So that's me, trundling down the hill to get flowers at the farmers' market...

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

We both had a swell time. And, although there was one time it was quicker to go around, rather than through, to the soda cooler from the front deck, it didn't feel crowded to me.

It's a cute little house, though, with a great yard. Yeah!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really love our little house, warts and all, especially the fascinating adventure of continuing to discover what grows in our yard. And I just checked one of my potted cucumbers and it has little microscopic cucumbers on it. Cool!

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't make it, but I have been sick for days with a nasty cough/sore throat/achy thing. Plus I am going out of town for work tomorrow. So I thought I would stay home and rest.

However my place next Friday! And I certainly have enough room for a Clarion. RU guys bringing over any leftovers?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear you've been sick; you were definitely missed. We will for sure be bringing a bunch of beer and cider of various sorts, and there may be some soda-type stuff as well. Not much left in the way of food. Do let us know if you need help with anything.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Actually, I realized last night that the whole bag of snacky things that came from Marci's place never got put out, so there will be snacks as well. Mixed bag, obviously.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear all went well -- I was a bit nervous about deserting you to your fate.

MKK

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

But she'd've been happy if you'd desserted her!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Nah, it was fine. Probably better than I'm willing to say, just because I always tend to look at the things that are missing because they didn't get done, which of course, nobody but me can see.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I first heard the observation "All the best fans congregate in the kitchen" from Charles Burbee, about 40 years ago, and deemed it reasonably accurate. Due to a habit of Wandering, however, I do have mixed feelings about the many who seem to have a powerful and permanent affinity for the kitchen doorway.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm generally a fan of good flow for parties, and unfortunately, our house does not have a fully circular plan, so when the kitchen door is blocked, that is pretty much that.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oh? Perhaps Seattle Fans (or Parties) are different, but I've found that blockage of the kitchen doorway doesn't result in terminal necrosis. Usually, I think, the refrigerator in the kitchen contains the beer -- an attractant powerful enough to overcome the most stubborn blockages. (Mind you, I'm thinking of The Days of Yore, not having been to a FanParty in years, and being aware that many FanHosts in the LArea nowadays are reputed to Not Serve Alcoholic Beverages.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, LA fandom had grown weird about drinking since quite some time. But the thing about any given Clarion West party is that each one plays host not only to the students in the workshop, but the instructor who has been teaching that week, and the instructor is generally going to be a Big Name Writer, someone with their own fairly substantial gravity field. The gravity fields vary, from massive frozen gas jiants like [mumble] to sprightly, mercurial, airless inner planets like [mumffle], but they all exercise a strong social pull in the vicinity of their LaGrange points. At our particular Clarion West party, the planetary body in question was Connie Willis, and after arriving she parked herself next to the kitchen door for much of the party, and the consequent clutter of orbital captures quite naturally filled the space between her and the television set. And the beer and wine were all out on the front deck, so there was less reason to break through than there otherwise might be. So it stayed pretty solidly packed.

[lasirenadolce.livejournal.com]

It was a wonderful party! Thank you!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you! I appreciate hearing back because when I'm hosting I can never objectively judge. There are always about a million things that I coulda-shoulda-woulda done, and so I tend to see what's missing, rather than what's there.

New Metric of Party Success

[u-must-b-joking.livejournal.com]

I assume there's a sliding scale for when this happens relative to 'doors open'! Anyway I think it's quite charming.

Re: New Metric of Party Success

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It was mostly in the lumpy middle of the bell curve that it was hard or impossible to get through the kitchen door, yeah.