...Into The Upper Deck

And go on it did.

The chronology of the past several days feels like several blurry moments. Last we left, I was prepping for a party of up to 150, making sure every detail was handled on some level, and then the party happened.

Two words: it ROCKED.

In posting the pictures I took from that night, I can only preface my thoughts by admitting the only thing that would have made the night better was if Kaia was there with me. And it would have made it a LOT better. But having said that, I was -- and am -- really pleased with everything related to that night.

In a nutshell, the space was perfect -- our group ended up at about 110 -- and it was just dark enough in the bar for us to have some privacy and/or anonymity for some random groping, gossiping and or itch-scratching ;) But overall everyone seemed pleased; the place, Club Iguana, was the perfect location for the mass of people drinking, eating, dancing and yapping.

On top of that, I got a chance to meet some people that I've known through the online world for years but never had met in person. Friends of friends, "invitee-in-laws" and people with whom I just don't get a chance to spend enough time were (finally) there. That means Roberta, my friend from Fairbanks, Alaska-cum Madison, Wisconsin-cum Shawnee Mission, Kansas, my friend Sandy from the LA area, Sheila from Houston, and a half-dozen other people with whom I've spoken to with regularity but never met face to face. All in all, it was a great -- and unfortunate -- reminder that the Internet is a double-edged sword: it facilitates human contact with people all over the world, but serves to remind that there is no substitute for genuine human contact and simultaneously can prevent that human contact from occurring. As they say in France, it's a mindfuck.

As the night wound down and a bunch -- 25 or 30 -- of us wound up at Ben Ash's Deli at 55th and 7th (around 2:30AM), everyone -- bleary-eyed, weary, tired and semi-drunk and/or fully hung over -- had post-party eats and then we all went our separate ways. I spoke to Kaia throughout the night but she had gone to sleep hours prior to me leaving Ben Ash, so I quietly walked to 6th Avenue once the crowd dispersed -- through streets that were unusually, eerily quiet and uninhabited -- grabbed a cab and went home. Since this area is where I work, I am not used to seeing this neighborhood so devoid of life or light, and it was very unsettling making my way through what is usually a densely-populated slice of my everyday life as the only moving being for what seemed like blocks. So when I finally reached home -- around 5 -- I populated the HoB Flicker site like I promised I would and went to sleep. Prior to crashing, I noticed other people had already posted some pictures from the party, and that made me smile -- people that eager must either have had a great time or had such a shitty time that they were home -- and sober -- early enough to navigate the process of posting pictures. Thankfully, the former, and not the latter, was the case.

All in all, it was a major success -- and I would have posted about it herein much sooner, as was my want -- but I basically spent the last few days fighting a post-party hangover, sleep deprivation, election stuff and yesterday's incredible news that Rumsfeld was, finally, stepping down. I'll touch on Tuesday's explosive, yet predicted, election results (and the aforementioned Rumsfeld fall-out news) later.

I apologize for not visiting here sooner after the party, but hopefully those of you who made it here soon after and/or saw the pics had a general sense of who, what, where, how and why I wasn't here. My friend who survived another birthday ;) had a lot of fun as well, and I think, overall, that the more we throw these parties, the easier -- and more enjoyable -- they become. There was only one or two people giving us advice, nagging us for guest list info, and advising us on how to make the party better (LOL) before the actual event, and one of those people wound up not even showing up.

So again, I am extremely grateful to all of the people who came, from both near and far, who braved airlines, traffic, hotels, tourists, the NYC Marathon and a cavalcade of other obstacles, to be here this past weekend. And of course I also am genuinely thankful for the people that made it here from across town -- LisaB, for coming despite injuring her knee earlier that day, bunches of people who came in from other boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the 6th Borough, New Jersey) and my friends Trip and Dara, who braved babysitters, pre-fab out-of-state visitation and a tacky yet inspiring Zorro costume ;) to be there.

As I said that night -- more times than I can count -- the next one (in February) will be even better...but this one was great :)

-B-