as much as i propone them all the time, i'm still ambivalent about parties. when i'm hosting i often find i'm either too busy doing things to talk to the guests, or else i try to find things to keep me busy so i can avoid talking to the guests. and i'm sometimes frustated as a guest too, with either too many people or usually too few that i want to talk to. mostly the fun parts (the parts that make parties stand out from some of regular life, at least the way i like them) are the food and dancing, if there's dancing (both preparing for them and doing them.)

this party had both. the food (and drink) i thought was uniformly excellent, and nicely arranged in themes: frozen things - ginger/tropical and watermelon granitas (w or w/o malibu), lime-lemon and orange-pineapple popsicles, sangria cubes - and dips - guacamole and bean, with swell homemade tortilla chips - plus fruit salad and bruschette. and malibu-soaked pineapple and mojitos and sangria and someone brought bud.

so that was good (see, don't you wish you were there?). and the dancing, although it took a while to pick up (like always, like the party, which was "scheduled" for 9 but had its largest influx around midnite) was good too. the first time ever i've made an iTunes playlist to dj by, and it's a good method, although even more prone than usual to have people trying to involve themselves in djing. which is fine, i don't have a problem with that, except when (as was happening a lot of last night) the people dancing are more interested in figuring out how to get other people to start dancing than actually dancing. i missed you dancing and not caring. always the conundrum: i enjoy djing and dancing more when i'm only (or mostly) doing one, but i'm also usually tempted to do the other. people think certain songs will get everyone on the floor (true, there are a couple) but really it's just what they want to hear.

ironically, everybody really did get up and dance at the very end (~3:30a), when i had decided to stop djing and put on sms. i skipped ahead to "naive melody," and then everyone came out and had fun with "the fool" "take yr praise" "billie jean" (jane's takeover) "surfin usa" "sweet dreams" "i'm a vampire" "yo tengo una novia" "no diggity" "arrividerci" "ubik" "what'd i say" "me and giuliani…" (for the third time, but aborted for special last-call requests of) "talk to me dance with me" and "such great heights," which you basically dance to by hopping up and down. by the end of it my feet were aching and pitch black (i was about the only barefoot), so i soaked them in the ice bucket.

was there something else i wanted to say? i dunno. (who was there? a lot of people i didn't know, for one thing.) i got up and did the dishes and mopped and cleaned the kitchen and now i've eaten french toast and i'm ready to go to central park for the canadians (i was there yesterday for my icelander friends, which was silly as i expected.)

suffix of the day: -aster

i'm amazed at how much of an emotional effect pop music has on me, now more than ever i think, even when there's nothing particular to link it up with. i just get overcome and yelp, listening to whatever.

i believe in love
but it don't believe in