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Fats Waller, the gifted Jazz pianist, would shout something when his playing was particularly brilliant. This line “somebody shoot me while I’m happy” has always struck me as a grim sentiment but the idea of ending on a high note is compelling. The last streak of days, while not a capstone, I hope is symptomatic of the life I’m attempting to lead. I do not have direct access to happiness but I can cultivate an environment where it is easier to muster. I thought having eight people stay over would be hard but it allowed me to function at a very efficient scale where I can make double batches of everything and everyone has enough to eat. Also, with that many people, the participants kind of entertain each other.

Should I not have any other social get togethers for the next year I’ll feel I’ve still served well as a host and entertainer and allowed people to make joy. Should I find that I can do so biannually, I will be content. Should I find I can do so semiannually, I will be blessed.

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Daniel and I had a few hours to kill before he needed to catch a train back to Philly for his flight back to Huntsville and he and I walked around Tyler in a different loop than Cody and I had. Daniel has had a side project of getting the Arkansas state constitution which is apparently quite long and byzantine and he told me of the months he’d spent trying to get a copy. After about six miles, we had worked up a glow and we got a sandwich before making it to the train station.

Kacey had invited me to her family’s shore house and I hopped in my car with my kite and I headed to Sea Isle City. For two hours my kite and I stroke across sand and sky and I wrote joy above people’s heads. The wind was strong and I was able to get my kite to do complete loops for the first time in my life.

Mike, Kacey, Steph, Zack, and I went out to an unremarkable dinner at a restaurant which Yelp! had foretold would serve us but sadness. Mike was a Cassandra warning us of our doom and we did not listen. What most people forget is that Cassandra was cursed to predict doom and no one would believe her, the true curse was that she was always right.

Traffic home was slow and I slept very well.

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The house rose slowly and our plans for an early visit to Philly withered. Suzie broke off to attend to some business and the rest of us took a walk around the Art Museum before reuniting. In the interim, Brad and I had talked about driving the van.

Me: How’d you like driving the van?
Brad: It was much easier than I thought it would be.
Me: Yeah, she can dance.
Brad: Slow but graceful.

We searched for a place for dinner and after a few misses dropped off those that had to return directly to Cinci so they could make their connection in New York City. Paul, Suzie, Daniel, and I found Chipotle as the only open restaurant on Memorial Day Monday and ruminated on the week before dropping Suzie off.

Paul, Daniel, and I returned to my house and Paul lingered a bit before departing leaving just Daniel and myself. We returned the van and met up with some friends to chat for the evening.

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John Hewins was having a wedding reception today and asked me to take pictures so while the rest of the gang went to Philadelphia I went there.

The reception went splendidly and was a parade of people I hadn’t seen since high school, their toddlers, and the couple’s families.

John had intended to make it to my party but couldn’t so instead gave me about 40 lbs of left overs.

Party

I nearly missed the start of my own party and my guests ably amused themselves. The evening was hot and I was asked to turn up the air conditioning, I replied I had none but we were able to jury-rig my portable unit to fit in the pool room. As the night progressed, a room would get hot and loud and a small group would break off and move to another room. The herd would detect this shift and everyone else would follow.

Things wound down around 2am and I would like to thank Daniel for being so able at cleaning. There are benefits to having 1/2 of your friends be Eagle Scouts.

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In addition to Cody, Ty, Suzie, Brad, and Michael were going to stay over and they had bussed out to New York from Cincinnati. I had borrowed a 12 passenger van for the day to carry everyone and I expected to meet them somewhat refreshed from sleeping on a long bus drive. Everyone was a bit of a wreck as no one slept well on the bus. The group expanded to nine as we picked up Paul and Janine who were NYC locals. In no way did we look out of place.

From 2012-05-25 NYC

Our first stop was a walk south to the Brooklyn bridge where Michael retrieved a rubber ducky that had washed ashore. From there, we went up Wall Street and saw Trinity Church and the rising Freedom Tower which kind of just disappeared into the fog of the day.

For lunch we subwayed to the Chelsea Chipotle which sometimes makes burritos out of chorizo and Italian spiced meats but sadly they had no such offerings now. Ty purchased a second burrito which he carried around with him for the rest of the day and we make various other stops before kind of dropping from exhaustion including Rockefeller Center, World of Lego, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Time Square.

Janine decided to come home with us and Paul departed. Once piled into the van, there was a brief 10 minute period of stop and go traffic before everyone in the van except me was asleep. Traffic was horrible and it took us over 80 minutes just to leave New York. During this time I was in communication with Daniel who through a lucky sequence of delays on his part was at the Septa station within 10 seconds of us arriving.

The party was assembled, so we had a party. The total distance covered by my guests was about 6000 miles and that deserved pizza and wings.