Xmas II

So I know you are all dying to find out how my holidays ended, so, I'll tell you. On the 26th we flew from Wisco back to NYC and rented a car right from the airport to drive up to the Berkshires. Apart from a brief squabble while leaving the airport area, things went swimingingly. Now let me preface this post by describing a little bit what a trip out to Tunxis (our Hyannisport, dahling) is like. Its basically hanging out with my parents and playing games interspersed by my mother cooking delicious meals with us. We start drinking heavily around 6 and don't stop until an unreasonalbe time (when my mother starts getting emotional or a log falls out of the fireplace). So, by all accounts its usually a pretty great and unhealthy time. I enjoy it as well because Kippy goes apeshit and has the time of his life up there, so I feel less guilty keeping him in our appartment for 23 hours a day at home.

After a jubilant reunion with Kippy at Tim & Paul's we arrive at the TRout House in the evening to do Le Noel Bathaser with my parents. My mom does 95% (if not 100%) of the Xmas shopping and she still likes to treat me, and now Rick, as if we were 7 years old. This means a stocking stuffed with gum, toothbrushes, candy, socks, and the like as well as about 10 presents for each of us. She went nuts at Tommy Hilfiger and got us all kinds of undwear, jackets, shirts, ect. which I'll actually wear. Probably the most exciting Jesus Day moment was when I sucessfully predicted getting The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo out of the blue. I had never asked my mom for it, and I really wanted it because it was on Stephen King's top ten books of 2008, so it was really cool she got it for me, and even cooler that I guessed it. She also got me a subscription to The Paris Review which I am very excited about as well as nice gloves, an amaryllis (which I definitely had to look up how to spell) and toffee. So we both got a pretty nice haul overall.

A spectacular sunset on the way home from Tim & Paul's place

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to playing ping-pong and getting drunk at cocktail parties. Seriously. The second night we were there my parents organized a cocktail party for the Caldwells (our next door neighbors) and after that I conviced all of us to go over the the Lawler's for his cocktail party. These parties are sometimes a bit stressful for me because I grew up with all these people and I'm expected to remember all of their names. Well, maybe not expected, because I spent alot of summers away in Provincetown and I am just now starting to reconnect to the Berkshires. Often someone will come up to me and say "you may not remember me, but I'm. . ." but also some people say "Jonathan Balthaser! I haven't seen you in 5 years! How are you!" and I have to pretend like I know who they are. This is easier with liquor. There are really alot of fascinating people who live around the lake and it was nice drunkenly talking with them. Rick is starting to get a clear view of the members. Anyway, apparently we were popular as my mother has told us several times since that we "were the hit of the party." I really don't think that we are that fascinating, but when I think about it, a married twenty year old couple is probably a giant gust of fresh air to these 60 year olds who are used to seeing only each other all year at these cocktail parties.

The last party was thrown by Ron Ronald, my father's best friend from his Denison days. He is related to our neighbors the Caldwells, and likes to throw a large family holiday party that he invites our family to as well. He owns a restaurant in Hartford, so he brought in his head chef to prepare a meal at the Clubhouse. Now, because Ron is best friends with my father, there is even more anxiety about remember who everyone is in his family. He seems to have around 6 daughters, and I can never remember who is who and what they all do. This night I made a concious effort to start to remember some of them and I made some real progress. The meal was nice and I sat next to Ron's sister who was quite interesting to talk to. One of the Caldwell's daughter's, Amelie, got into Denison, so everyone was all excited about that. Rick correctly guessed all the children's grades, and they all guessed he was 26 years old. The evening ended with a heated ping-pong game between Rick and Amelie, my mother and myself. So, 10 pounds heavier and with our livers ravaged, we headed back to NYC for some Skiddie New Year's Even fun. . .until next time!