Friday, March 5th, 2010
Uncle George had a party Saturday night to show off the apartments. Only a few people had seen them since they were renovated, so the party was a big deal. Over one hundred people showed up for the party (my mom and I agreed that there were at least a hundred-fifty people at one point). It was a madhouse! The poor caterer was running around like mad, trying to keep the food from running out, and everyone was standing in groups, talking to each other. They certainly weren’t yelling, but get a hundred people in a small area and get them all talking to each other and the decibel level rises to the point where a person cannot hear themselves think.
I found myself a nice corner and stayed out of the way. Enormous parties are all well and good for people who know each other, but meeting new people in that environment, at least for me, is nearly an impossibility. It was getting hot, and overcrowded when my mom, Aunt Andi, Uncle Mack and I decided to take a break. My mom wanted to get photographs of the Riverwalk at night, and that was our last night in San Antonio, so off we went, with hardly a word to Uncle George, who was quite happy socializing.
The Riverwalk on a Saturday night is crowded, but not as much as the apartments were! I took a picture of the party from The Bridge. It was actually very enjoyable to get out and explore the Riverwalk. We didn’t go far, just a couple of bridges down the Riverwalk and back. We stopped for ice cream, too. Two scoops for each of us! Of course I had chocolate…
The party was still in full swing when we got back. Again, I found a nice corner and planted myself there. The end of the party (11:00 pm) came and went and the party was still going. By midnight, people were starting to leave. I found an empty chair and perched there. The noise was dying down and there weren’t as many people around, but still enough to make it a loud area. I started people watching.
Parties are very interesting and it was fun to get a chance to analyze one without trying to participate. That sounds very unsociable of me, but that’s just how I am. If I’m at a party with people I know, I’m fine. If I’m meeting one or two people at a time, I’m very friendly, but when I’m in a large group of people who I don’t know, and I can’t hear what they’re saying to me from two feet away, I tend to become the Anthropologist in the corner. I’ll observe, but not participate.
As I was saying, parties are interesting to analyze. The favorite place for anyone to be is the kitchen. As the party died down, more and more people gravitated to the kitchen. I also noticed that the perfect number of people in any given conversation is two to four. Once a fifth person joins in the conversation, it begins to get awkward and people drift away from that conversation to join other conversations with fewer people. That was about the extent of my 1:00 am brain’s capacity for study. I sort of turned off after that.
By 1:30 am, most people had left. We were left with a mess. Sticky floors, toothpicks everywhere, something gross smeared across one of the windows… It was really disgusting. I suppose that goes with hosting parties, though. My mom, Aunt Andi, Uncle Mack and I were set on cleaning most of the mess before going to bed. We did. Uncle George was willing just to leave it for the morning. So, we cleaned. Then we all collapsed.
The next day was the first official meeting of the board of directors of Art & Cuisine Adventures. It’s a business my mom, Aunt Andi and Uncle George are starting up that will take about 30 people to different places in North America at a time. The trips will be about a week long and will include laid-back lessons on painting, photography and cooking. Uncle George took a trip like this to Italy with Il Chiostro. He had a blast! He got the idea to do an American version of Il Chiostro, so the three siblings are starting that business.
Luckily, I didn’t have to listen to the meeting. I went out and explored the RIverwalk. I ended up walking the entire loop of the Riverwalk near Uncle George’s apartment and taking tons of pictures along the way. My favorite building had to be the Time Life building. It had wonderful gargoyle-like grotesque faces.
We left that afternoon. I thought it was very amusing that the entire airport was riveted to the television screens, watching the USA versus Canada hockey game. When USA scored their first goal, the entire airport cheered. I had to board the plane before the end of the game, which was disappointing. I do love hockey! Luckily for me, the pilot was just as interested in the game as most of his passengers. He came on just as we were about to take off and informed us the game had gone into overtime. We all cheered! Then he came on a bit later and did his whole safety spiel. At the end of the spiel he said, “And Canada won.” The whole airplane groaned in disappointment. I wish I could have seen the whole game! It had to have been a great one to watch.
The rest of the week has been rather dull. I’ve worked on The Mummy’s Wrap. I nearly lost my navigation bar at one point, trying to upgrade it. No worries, though! The navigation bar, while not exactly what I want, is still up and operational. At some point in time, though, it’s going to be a bit different.
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Tags: hockey, il chiostro, olympic hockey, Riverwalk, San Antonio, San Antonio Riverwalk, san antonio riverwalk rentals, The Mummy's Wrap, travel, travel business, usa vs. canada