Sunday, August 16, 2009
Stan's Farewell
Stan's farewell from DC got stretched out over a week. Last weekend we had his farewell party at my place with about 20 people. They turned out to all be people he met since we first met in October 2007, mutual friends all. Though he had other friends in Washington, some had moved away, and others had just sort of faded from sight in the last few months. So, the folks we had were the fun people. :-)
The party went well and much fun was had. I ended up not making the food myself but either buying it, or in a couple cases counting on friends who like to make food. During the run up to the weekend I was trying to get the condo together, as I've been reorganizing the place since Adrian moved out, and he still has stuff there so I needed to work around that. I was also trying to get Stan's going away gift: I created a photo book of pictures taken since we met, including pics from our travels as well as here at home. I finished it, but it didn't arrive from the printer in time for the party.
The party was on Sunday afternoon; I like to plan parties then because no one ever makes plans for Sunday afternoon. I was stressed leading up to it because I really wanted Stan to enjoy it and for everyone to have fun. Fortunately, Linh volunteered to arrange for the cake and then come help me set up, and in the process helped me calm down a bit. Ethan offered to make spring rolls (though he thought the party started at 4 rather than at 2...oops) and Tuan went to the Vietnamese deli for me to pick up an order (and it turned out the place I ordered from wasn't the place I thought it was, but he figured it out).
We had folks over until about 6, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I've noticed at my parties that there's some self-segregation...the people who've known me longer tend to hang out together, the people I've meet since moving back in '06 are in another group. Interesting.
So after that I relaxed a bit, then started thinking about the next weekend. Stan was packing all week and I was working, plus there was the minor issue of Thursday's colonoscopy, but we had plans. Friday night our friend Kevin took us out and we went to a new place (well, new to us) that served Cajun-style food. We called it a night after that because I was running 13 miles the next day and Stan had plenty to do to clear out of his apartment.
Then, Saturday night, we had a small group of friends over for dinner. I have been looking for an excuse to cook again (Adrian kind of took over the fancy dinner party cooking when we were together) and this was a good chance to bring some of our closest friends together. The menu didn't turn out quite like I expected, as some of the ingredients weren't available, but I mostly made it work out. The entree took longer to prepare than I expected but everyone was patient. Afterwards, we headed out to Town, where Stan had a chance to say goodbye to a few other folks. We were pretty beat by the end of the night -- it was a crazy busy day -- but we loved it.
Sunday was pretty chill. We had a great brunch at our favorite place, then took care of things around home, like packing for our trip (well, MY packing...Stan was ready to go). After dinner I told Stan to put on his shoes, we were going for a drive. We ended up at the end of the runway at National Airport, watching as the planes landed over our heads. Back before we started dating I'd thought it would be romantic to take Stan there, but before I ever did he mentioned that someone at work had talked about doing that and Stan thought that sounded like a pretty cheap date. So, I never took him...but I decided we needed to do that befoe he leaves. With the cheesy mmusic playing on the radio, it turned out to be pretty romantic...in my opinion, anyway.
Though the farewell seems stretched out, it's all going to come to a sudden stop next Friday in Denver. We'll see how it all goes.
The party went well and much fun was had. I ended up not making the food myself but either buying it, or in a couple cases counting on friends who like to make food. During the run up to the weekend I was trying to get the condo together, as I've been reorganizing the place since Adrian moved out, and he still has stuff there so I needed to work around that. I was also trying to get Stan's going away gift: I created a photo book of pictures taken since we met, including pics from our travels as well as here at home. I finished it, but it didn't arrive from the printer in time for the party.
The party was on Sunday afternoon; I like to plan parties then because no one ever makes plans for Sunday afternoon. I was stressed leading up to it because I really wanted Stan to enjoy it and for everyone to have fun. Fortunately, Linh volunteered to arrange for the cake and then come help me set up, and in the process helped me calm down a bit. Ethan offered to make spring rolls (though he thought the party started at 4 rather than at 2...oops) and Tuan went to the Vietnamese deli for me to pick up an order (and it turned out the place I ordered from wasn't the place I thought it was, but he figured it out).
We had folks over until about 6, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I've noticed at my parties that there's some self-segregation...the people who've known me longer tend to hang out together, the people I've meet since moving back in '06 are in another group. Interesting.
So after that I relaxed a bit, then started thinking about the next weekend. Stan was packing all week and I was working, plus there was the minor issue of Thursday's colonoscopy, but we had plans. Friday night our friend Kevin took us out and we went to a new place (well, new to us) that served Cajun-style food. We called it a night after that because I was running 13 miles the next day and Stan had plenty to do to clear out of his apartment.
Then, Saturday night, we had a small group of friends over for dinner. I have been looking for an excuse to cook again (Adrian kind of took over the fancy dinner party cooking when we were together) and this was a good chance to bring some of our closest friends together. The menu didn't turn out quite like I expected, as some of the ingredients weren't available, but I mostly made it work out. The entree took longer to prepare than I expected but everyone was patient. Afterwards, we headed out to Town, where Stan had a chance to say goodbye to a few other folks. We were pretty beat by the end of the night -- it was a crazy busy day -- but we loved it.
Sunday was pretty chill. We had a great brunch at our favorite place, then took care of things around home, like packing for our trip (well, MY packing...Stan was ready to go). After dinner I told Stan to put on his shoes, we were going for a drive. We ended up at the end of the runway at National Airport, watching as the planes landed over our heads. Back before we started dating I'd thought it would be romantic to take Stan there, but before I ever did he mentioned that someone at work had talked about doing that and Stan thought that sounded like a pretty cheap date. So, I never took him...but I decided we needed to do that befoe he leaves. With the cheesy mmusic playing on the radio, it turned out to be pretty romantic...in my opinion, anyway.
Though the farewell seems stretched out, it's all going to come to a sudden stop next Friday in Denver. We'll see how it all goes.
Labels: Friends, Relationships
