The party was interesting. The L's don't live very far from us (it's totally walking distance), but we rarely see them as much as we used to for whatever reasons. My parents have always been odd with their friends; they used to have more than they do, I think, but people have moved, died, or just been more financially successful than they have and all of that means distance. Anyway, they have their little chanukah party every year and this year, having nothing better to do and actually remembering that it was happening, I decided to go. I hadn't seen the L's since their son Avi opened his recording studio (which eventually went south). Before that, I couldn't tell you. I used to be one of the annoying brat kids who ran around the party and tonight I found myself dodging them (one of which was my verdammt neice). Anyway, I waded through the older folks for a bit 'til I got my bearings and found the few younger types that had chosen to arrive. Most of those were Avi's friends, except for the two rather attractive girls that I discovered latet in the evening were fifteen and seventeen (*sigh*). Despite their intelligence and humor, I was in no mood to persue felony charges. I sent my libido back to the car with a bottle of Evian.

For the most party, I enjoyed myself. Everywhere, I was surrounded by was wine, cheese, crackers, bread, and old liberals. :) The kids got to light the chanukah lamp, we all did the blessing, or tried to. The people who started faking it after "Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu," was kinda funny. I fully admit I was one of them 'cause I ain't been in a position to say that thing in over sixteen years.

So, for real food, there was salad, chicken, and a metric ton of latkes (with sour cream, two kinds of apple sauce, and cinnamon-sugar available to garnish) as a main course. Cookies, chocolate cake, and one of those funky fruit-pastry-type-cake deals were available for dessert, but I decided not to stuff myself.

I mentioned to Avi that he looks different every time I see him. When I was young, he was the blond-haired, blue-eyed all-American kid. When I saw him at the studio years later, he was shaved bald and wearing glasses. We got stoned with some other folks and he talked about Burning Man (since we'd both been) and clubs and he mentioned that he knew people in the AMF (anyone know if these guys are still around?). This year, he had bushy hair, a big ass bushy beard, and wearing leather pants (and still had glasses). He looked like he'd walked out of the Woodstock movie and I swear, he musta spent ninety friggin' minutes makin' all those damned latkes. While I was sampling wines and confirming the fact that, no, I really don't like wine, I would catch a glimpse of him making the fuckers from scratch. As I make pretty much nothing from scratch and am the type to occasionally watch shows on The Food Network (most often Molto Mario & 30 minute Meals; Emeril's kinda annoying), I tend to take an interest in this sort of thing. If I hadn't been distracted by the various people (recounting my Front Sight experiences to Mr. L, for example), I'd have tried to pay more attention to the process, but to no avail.

I found it somewhat amusing that none of the adults (re: the people over 35) at the party recognized me. While I had encountered a few briefly in my youth, my advanced age and beard had me introducing myself to various long-time attendees and (when I first arrived) even the hosts, who I think were surprised that I showed up at all. Hell, my parents were surprised, since I left nearly an hour after they did. Still, things were much as the same there as they've always been. Books strewn about everywhere, pieces of art from foreign lands, and it seems like they never quite got rid of that 1970's feel out of the place. I'd forgotten that these were the same people that my parents dragged me to Cuba with almost immediately after my birth.

Anyway, all in all, it was cool and I'm glad I went. After all, this time next year, one of those girls will be legal... ;)