Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again. (updated)

(Daphne du Maurier)

Last night I dreamed of death. Our library was doing a program with a woman who was dying. It bothered me greatly and I was reading her book. (It's a dream, I can't really explain it more than that.) I dreamed that my boss was related to Bobby Kennedy and he and his kids visited us and then they went on a plane that blew up. So then our library was writing a memoir for each child (he had eleven.)

So...luckily, Paula informed me a while back that dreams about death are about change, not about death. Phew!

I also dreamed about refridgerators, and going to night school, riding the bus...

I had two beers last night and some root beer and some lovely sodas from Trader Joes. (YES, we have one in Pittsburgh now.) One of my guests brought hard lemonade and Smirnoff, which was all gone by the end of the evening. I didn't try any of the sparkling apple cider, but my guests enjoyed it as it is now gone. My next to last (or my last?) guest to arrive brought me a bottle of wine. And three folks brought me flowers. Kristin brought a vase (which I normally pronounce as if it rhymes with case, but in this instance, as it is all kinds of gorgeous, it has the ahhh in the middle and rhymes with Roz.) Brie, jelly beans, mango chicken, ice cream, cake were all eaten. I have pictures which I'll post later. Other bloggers present included Eileen, with hubby, Pat and John!

I was sad to see my last guests go, but tired enough to not coax them to stay just a little bit longer. Em stayed and cleaned up and washed my dishes (though as is the case with any good party, I found a plate and a bowl this morning that had been hiding.)

And no one made an issue of my age. Tuesday, working the polls, I lamented that I didn't really want to broadcast my age, as I'm pretty sure I was the oldest person I invited (I think Katie's boyfriend is actually older, but I didn't directly invite him.) (But so glad he came!) Where did that thought go? Oh, and Jerome said, but these are your friends, isn't honesty a cornerstone of friendship? And I did the whole bit about how most of my friends are either 5-10 years younger or 5-10 years older and I don't think most people realize I'm about to be 35. It's like having that conversation (this was a joke when I was a girl) at a date about Paul McCarthy and the other person says "Paul McCarthy was in another band before the Wings?" Now, the joke would be, Paul McCartney was in a band called the Wings? I don't care how old or young my friends are! But I don't like having that part of the conversation where a person tells me they were three when I was in seventh grade. (Yes, I've been in this conversation.)

As I was preparing for my party and I called Sally (not the one I went to the urban craft sale with) and told her I'd just washed four loads of dishes and that I needed to get ice and a cake and beer and she said, can't you call someone and ask them to pick those things up?

And here's the thing. The folks I invited to my party...are pre-friends. [Or, as in the song, make new friends, keep the old, some are silver, others gold--these are silver ones.] We're still in the "getting to know you phase" (even though I've known some of them for five years) and I invited them because I want them to be closer friends. So I didn't feel comfortable calling anyone and saying, can you pick up a cake? Can you pick up some ice? So I called Em, who had said, call me if you need anything. And when I reached her, she was having a DAY. So I got in the car, got the ice, the cake, the ice cream, and the beer. (Did I mention it was raining and I couldn't find my umbrella?)

After I'd bought these, Em called, as I was bringing the beer from the trunk (I got a box of beer bottles--it was my first time buying beer at the distributor--a new milestone!) and said, "Isn't the weather crappy?" and I dropped the beer. Yes, you read that right, I bought a box of beer bottles. The sidewalk got a nice drink and I rescued the bottles that didn't break (I think only four or five did) from the sidewalk broken box as the rain came down.

But I had fun. When Em finally arrived, she said, is there anything else that needs to happen and I said, a lobotomy? because at the point when she arrived I'd just been cramming every last thing that was out into a drawer, or a closet and I was going loony!

Then her cell phone rang and I thought, I just want my mommy and she wasn't home and the other person I call when I have a crisis IS Em, so I wanted to cry. But Em was tidying whilst she talked to her friend about her horrific day so I just chilled. I think I might have poured myself a drink of water at that point. Oh, I know, I made a quick microwave quesadilla (two slices of cheese and two tortillas for about a minute) just in case no one brought dinner food. And the first guest was Kristin, who arrived promptly at seven.

Okay, I have to go eat some breakfast--I'm joining Sally at Sunday School at Bellefield--it's a class on stewardship (read=how to be good with your money).