Yesterday's celebrations
Jul. 5th, 2002 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidYesterday I went to the Brookline farmer's market, still on despite the heat and the holiday. It was nice to get there early, see all the choices, though there were fewer stalls than usual. I picked up a few things for a friend, also some basil and peas for me.
Back at home, I finished the pasta salad I'd started for potluck (little cup-shaped pasta, chickpeas, garlic scapes, olives, basil, tomatoes, black pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar), got the red, not-quite-white, and blueberries (aka strawberries, blueberries, and honeydew melon), and off to the annual potluck gathering, relocated to the hosts' air-conditioned apartment, rather than be sitting on the lawns of MIT in dangerously hot weather (In previous years, apparently, MIT would've still been the destination, and we'd've moved indoors if nec. This year, with all the added security, no one was sure we could do that).
I was surprised at how many people were there already, and how many more showed up. (LJ'ers included Hrafn and Pheromone, but no one else that I know has an LJ.) Lots of general gabbing, then some gaming, including Guillotine, Apples to Apples (this time, I was odd, normal, sappy, responsible, and ridiculous....), and 1,000 Blank Cards (or whatever Seb calls his game), which is a game made by the players. Before the game starts, everyone takes some cards and writing implements and on as many cards as they're inspired to do, put a title, a drawing, and some action with a point value between 100 and 1000, or -100 and -1000. It can be very silly... People sang weasel songs, fetched chocolate, spoke German sentences, or in a French accent, told knock-knock jokes...
I was glad to get a chance to see some people I haven't seen in a while. At one point there was a discussion of how the Thursday night group had formed, and someone said it was very complicated geneology, of some friends, and then people bringing other people, etc. I said who had brought me, and the woman next to me said she was glad he had. That felt really nice :-). Fragments of the rest of the time: Discussions of bike lights. Building toys making pagoda hats. Bowling bunnies. A game where the players ask if the thought-of thing is more like X or Y, and slowly figure out what the master is thinking of. "Nature abhors a vaccum." The flag cupcake cake. Down time reading Bloom County. Eating pasta salad, and lots of fruit, and Kettle Chips. Watching kids climb on adults, and kids go upside down. Looking at an "I Spy" book with cool photographs. Standing in front of AC vents and luxuriating in being chilly. Hearing about power outages (in this heat!). Discussions of food NOT started by me!
Eventually a lot of people had left, for the movies, or for the fireworks in Newton, or to put children to bed, etc. Those of us remaining split up into a couple of people heading down to the river to watch the fireworks, some people staying home in air-conditioned glory, and a bunch of people heading to Arlington to watch the fireworks from there. Hrafn and I drove to the suggested park in Arlington, and it was mobbed, people filling it (there were food vendors set up!), all the parking everywhere around taken, police directing traffic, etc. We circled around, and parked on an on-ramp to Rte 2 eastbound, went down to a pedestrian bridge over the highway, and watched from there. It was nice: there were people there, but not a mob of them. Someone in one of the houses or cars had tuned to the station broadcasting the concert, so we could hear it, though not loudly (I most remember Amazing Grace played on the bagpipes). We could see, though not hear the fireworks. I wasn't too sad to be missing the booms; one year I'd felt them so strongly in my chest I got nervous. The fireworks were beautiful, as usual. There's something about such ephemeral stuff that is wonderful to appreciate right then (and seeing them on TV is just not the same for me). There were the usual huge sphere ones, in a variety of colors (including, towards the end, orange!). I missed the squiggly ones, though there might have been some low ones we couldn't see over the trees. There was a repeated set of 4 or 5 white ones sent up parallel at an angle right, then left, then straight up that were interesting, felt rather beacon-like to me. There were the circle ones, red circles that were plain, or had a sparkly globe inside, or 2 parallel circles (so geometric!). There were ones that remind me of weeping willows. Some were big globes of color that had a second, smaller, blossoming in another color. There were red heart ones :-). And the finale with gobs of colors inside other colors was wonderful. Every year there's something new I've not seen before...
And the drive home was easy, no crowds to contend with :-). Still hot out, but cooler than previous nights. Still, it took a while, even with both fans on..
Back at home, I finished the pasta salad I'd started for potluck (little cup-shaped pasta, chickpeas, garlic scapes, olives, basil, tomatoes, black pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar), got the red, not-quite-white, and blueberries (aka strawberries, blueberries, and honeydew melon), and off to the annual potluck gathering, relocated to the hosts' air-conditioned apartment, rather than be sitting on the lawns of MIT in dangerously hot weather (In previous years, apparently, MIT would've still been the destination, and we'd've moved indoors if nec. This year, with all the added security, no one was sure we could do that).
I was surprised at how many people were there already, and how many more showed up. (LJ'ers included Hrafn and Pheromone, but no one else that I know has an LJ.) Lots of general gabbing, then some gaming, including Guillotine, Apples to Apples (this time, I was odd, normal, sappy, responsible, and ridiculous....), and 1,000 Blank Cards (or whatever Seb calls his game), which is a game made by the players. Before the game starts, everyone takes some cards and writing implements and on as many cards as they're inspired to do, put a title, a drawing, and some action with a point value between 100 and 1000, or -100 and -1000. It can be very silly... People sang weasel songs, fetched chocolate, spoke German sentences, or in a French accent, told knock-knock jokes...
I was glad to get a chance to see some people I haven't seen in a while. At one point there was a discussion of how the Thursday night group had formed, and someone said it was very complicated geneology, of some friends, and then people bringing other people, etc. I said who had brought me, and the woman next to me said she was glad he had. That felt really nice :-). Fragments of the rest of the time: Discussions of bike lights. Building toys making pagoda hats. Bowling bunnies. A game where the players ask if the thought-of thing is more like X or Y, and slowly figure out what the master is thinking of. "Nature abhors a vaccum." The flag cupcake cake. Down time reading Bloom County. Eating pasta salad, and lots of fruit, and Kettle Chips. Watching kids climb on adults, and kids go upside down. Looking at an "I Spy" book with cool photographs. Standing in front of AC vents and luxuriating in being chilly. Hearing about power outages (in this heat!). Discussions of food NOT started by me!
Eventually a lot of people had left, for the movies, or for the fireworks in Newton, or to put children to bed, etc. Those of us remaining split up into a couple of people heading down to the river to watch the fireworks, some people staying home in air-conditioned glory, and a bunch of people heading to Arlington to watch the fireworks from there. Hrafn and I drove to the suggested park in Arlington, and it was mobbed, people filling it (there were food vendors set up!), all the parking everywhere around taken, police directing traffic, etc. We circled around, and parked on an on-ramp to Rte 2 eastbound, went down to a pedestrian bridge over the highway, and watched from there. It was nice: there were people there, but not a mob of them. Someone in one of the houses or cars had tuned to the station broadcasting the concert, so we could hear it, though not loudly (I most remember Amazing Grace played on the bagpipes). We could see, though not hear the fireworks. I wasn't too sad to be missing the booms; one year I'd felt them so strongly in my chest I got nervous. The fireworks were beautiful, as usual. There's something about such ephemeral stuff that is wonderful to appreciate right then (and seeing them on TV is just not the same for me). There were the usual huge sphere ones, in a variety of colors (including, towards the end, orange!). I missed the squiggly ones, though there might have been some low ones we couldn't see over the trees. There was a repeated set of 4 or 5 white ones sent up parallel at an angle right, then left, then straight up that were interesting, felt rather beacon-like to me. There were the circle ones, red circles that were plain, or had a sparkly globe inside, or 2 parallel circles (so geometric!). There were ones that remind me of weeping willows. Some were big globes of color that had a second, smaller, blossoming in another color. There were red heart ones :-). And the finale with gobs of colors inside other colors was wonderful. Every year there's something new I've not seen before...
And the drive home was easy, no crowds to contend with :-). Still hot out, but cooler than previous nights. Still, it took a while, even with both fans on..