may 18, 2003. Last night we went to Tymothi:J's going away party. He recently got a job in the Hague, doing what Scherezade does, and he's off for at least three months. It's really exciting for all of us - not only is he getting a good job, but it's glamorous & full of opportunities for European travel. I'm wondering now if he's interesting in a blog, similar to Scherezde's. Well, probably not. This party was the first I've been to outside our home in which I did not drink a drop of alcohol or smoke heavily to compensate for the loss of sweet, sweet booze. It was a unique experience, akin to the parties I went to when I was 16. I found out that if you drink enough Sprite and eat enough fudge, the world starts to shimmer around the edges. A fun discovery, to say the least. I wore overalls (a.k.a. the only pants that fit) and wandered around barefoot from backyard to living room to front porch. I definitely took the hippie mama prize of the evening...not that such a thing was offered. Spent quite a bit of time talking about the Sprout with old friends and new faces. As always, I got mixed reactions to my "boy in a dress" scheme. One new girl made the astute comment, "baby clothes are just bags for them to poop in. It doesn't matter what they look like." People let me steal chairs now, and try not to blow smoke in my face. I'm enjoying this. "Now that she's pregnant, I'll stop hitting on your wife." - fast eddie, to the boy Saw many lovely faces from the not-so-distant past: St. Jack complained that he was the last to know of my pregnancy and then left early, Seth bemoaned the lack of rap and played with the zipper on his Dr. Pepper jacket, Fast Eddie kept cornering me to tell me how happy he was about the pregnancy, Tym was a perfect host & thus almost always talking to other people, Dirk sang & told stories & acted generally Dirkish, & Fly shot bottle rockets at the car as we left. Stacy & Jesse were a lovely surprise; I'm so very pleased that one of Dirk's birthday resolutions was to be less of a jerk this year and thus free my social calendar to unlikely & scintillating combinations of us 4. I have to admit, though, the Boy was the Belle of the Fucking Ball. He brought his midi kareoke rig, set it up in the living room, and unleashed the kareoke madness. We sang for 3 solid hours, and the best thing about it was that you could take a break from the midis at any point simply by walking into the kitchen. I discovered last night that kareoke is made all the better by a readily available escape hatch. The Boy finishes packing his wires... "Well, Rocketbride, I've got the entire kareoke party in this one little package." I walk over and place my hand on his chest. "No, Boy. The REAL kareoke party is in here." One more tunnel through the Matrix this morning (after a quick stop for bagels at Bread & Roses...we're not barbarians...). Much better the second time; last time I was so numbed by the special effects that I couldn't follow the dialogue. Booty Call: Day 72 - Coils of baby's intestine visible. Your baby is swallowing and absorbing fluids. Urine is formed and discharged into the amniotic cavity. 2 years ago today: smoking fun long weekend