Vibes and Vibrations

It's 5:50 am. What am I doing up? Well, I drank too much wine last night and, of course, rose at an unearthly hour this morning. I'm listening to lounge music and wondering whether or not I can snatch another hour of sleep before getting ready for work. But the past few days have been a little intense, even for my own good, so maybe it's an apt time to post.

Two of the other assistants in my department are leaving to pursue jobs elsewhere, having fulfilled their 2 year quota here. The chief sees this as an opportunity to revamp and reconstruct our department, which is all rather unnerving. Anyway, it came to a head on Friday afternoon when he pulled each of the remaining assistants into his office and broke the news to us: he's only hiring one replacement for the 2 departing assistants, and is redistributing our individual workloads so that we each take on an additional editor. Hmm. My head is spinning. I have enough trouble keeping up with the two amazing but demanding women I work for -- I really don't have the capacity to take on a third. More to the point, the third editor I've been assigned works in a field in which I have an interest tantamount to absolute zero.

Friday night: dinner, drinks, sleepover with Chris. Karin didn't come, which was rather disappointing, but it was a pretty soggy and gloomy evening. Saturday: pottered around Columbia, brunch at Deluxe, bought shoes & jacket, train home to Princeton.

Our house has been planning to have a big, blow-out party for about 6 weeks now. Finally Vanessa and Christoph decided they were going to invite a few of their friends over for a low-key gathering. Such treats as Vanessa's homemade squash soup, Christoph's famous appetizer platter, and Yorgo spinning at the turntables were promised. I wasn't sure if I would be around for any of it, so I sort of backed out until 2 days before the party, when I realized my life isn't as exciting as I originally imagined. So I came back, drooping and tired from the city (cozying up in a twin-bed with someone, no matter how much you adore them, is really inconducive to rest), and sulked around the house while Vanessa whipped up corn and avocado salad, and Yorgo made all of us his "spezziale" gin and tonic. It's pretty much a Gin Fizz.

I don't know how it all came together, because one moment Vanessa was frantically scooping peelings out of the sink, Christoph was out playing tennis, and I was smoking on the porch, but everyone who came to the party had a great time. We had a good mix of people -- Vanessa's earth goddess friends Sascha, David, Alden and Dan, who plucked flowers from our garden and ate them, or danced with scarves ("shadow dancing" is what Sascha called it) while Yorgo and I were at the turntables. I haven't laughed that much in ages. The house was giving off these gorgeous vibes: I played some of my music, and three guys just grabbed some of Christoph's drums and started banging out an accompaniment...down-tempo house music goes tribal. It was amazing to move from an intense conversation with Sascha and Dave about threesomes and "flow" to Yorgo's anecdotes about why it's unacceptable to ask for a kir royale in Iran. All with a pumping 4/4 base in the background.

Christoph's friend Mike, who has visited our house a few times and who seems perfectly amiable, dropped by as well. I don't really know what to say about that part of it. All I know is that we were hanging out for a few hours and then at 4, Christoph popped his head in to say goodnight - everyone else had left - and I freaked out, leaped off the couch, and basically pushed Mike out the door. Why? Oh, because I'm an asshole. I'm kind of confused about it all, which prompted a really unsavory conversation last night with Yorgo and Reza about guys and sex. Just what I always wanted.

Just to backtrack a little -- on Sunday I went to brunch with Vanessa and the goddess crew in Princeton. We hung out chatting until the afternoon, when I walked over to this great public square in Princeton where Christoph, who runs a music non-profit called MIMA , was having an outdoor performance. I ended up hovering at the edge, cheering and clapping as a group of undergrads taught little kids to play on the drums, but then Christoph, awesome as he is, pulled me in and had me join the drum circle. So yours truly, armed with an enormous tabla and the bongos, rocked out with a bunch of grungy youth, hemp-wearing mums, and little boys and girls having the time of their lives. Then I came home and had some leftover squash soup with Vanessa, watched Amelie, and fell asleep.

Balu is scratching at the door, so I have to go pet him for a little while. He's so funny when he purrs -- he sounds like he's percolating! It's adorable. It's nice to give affection to someone who responds so unashamedly to it. Unlike me, of course.