Crawfish, St. Patrick, & Party Crashers

I took a half day of vacation this afternoon to watch basketball (I know I'm a junkie...but I'll return to normal in April). The weather was perfect, so while there was a break, I took some time out to soak up the last of the daylight and closed out a perfect St. Patrick's day with a Heineken in hand. It occured to me that I hadn't returned Carlos' call from the night before, so I called him back and asked what he'd called about.

"I didn't really want anything. I probably had something on my mind," he said sheepishly, but never giving a reply as to what it was. He asked me what I was doing that evening & I told him I really didn't have any plans except to meet my girlfriend at 9 at Fox & Hound to watch more basketball. I asked what his plans were and he said he was at a crawfish boil a few blocks away from my house. He said that he & Brian were supposed to go to Fox & Hound, "but then Brian told me about this thing. You're welcome to come if you'd like."

"But Shorty's here," I replied (he always seems to forget that I am a single mother!) "There are other kids here. Bring him with you," he replied. "I don't know, Carlos. I wasn't invited," I stated, remembering my manners and that Carlos has the social skills of a cocker spaniel. "So what do you want me to do, check and see if it's okay and then call you back?" (He was serious. He was really serious.) "Yes!" I emphatically replied. He said okay and called me back a few minutes later to let me know it was okay & he'd meet me and our HR rep (whom he'd also invited) in 15 minutes at a local restaurant so we could follow him to the house.

While waiting for Carlos to arrive, Shorty said to himself out loud, "My mom is not selfish!" I was intrigued so I asked him, "What are you talking about?" He told me he remembered the cheeky conversation. "You are not selfish! You give a lot...all the time Mommy!" I asked him to give me an example to which he replied, "You give a lot of love to a lot of people! You help people! Like yesterday when I was sad about James & Kallie Mae" (a whole 'nother blog entry) "you gave me love! You are not selfish!" I thought to myself that Carlos could learn a lot from Shorty.

We arrived at the house around 7 and partied well into the night. The food was slammin'...the humor was bawdy...and nothing was funnier than the following four things:

Brian

We're all standing/sitting around eating crawfish and building our mounds with the carcasses. Someone points out Brian's mound as compared to everyone elses (see the normal mounds above). Brian had built a hearty mound of carefully laid out crawfish bodies, neatly ordered with their bodies all in the same direction and stacked in even numbers. This from the same man who's apartment I used to clean when I came over because I just couldn't stand the filth of the tens of empty beer bottles he'd accumulated along with the curdling milk that had been in the fridge for months (yes...I said months!) Why so TBS funny?! B. spends an inordinate amount of time on his hair and skin each week so they're both perfect (think John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever) and also would personally detail his car each week. Brian's an incredibly orderly thinker (obvious in his neatly stacked crawfish carcasses), but his apartment leaves something to be desired.

The HR Rep

Back to us all standing/sitting around eating crawfish. Most of us have had few beers and are a little tipsy, but our local HR rep is eating crawfish & practically performing autopsies on the heads. Someone laughingly comments on it and she says, "I know! And I wasn't even invited to this party!" Carlos picked up on this and ran with it! I jokingly commented to her, "Never, never, never implicate yourself! If you weren't invited, just pretend you were & continue to allow those who were to enjoy your blessed company!"

Me

Sometime during the evening, I asked the host if he knew how to spell my name (since I wasn't personally invited). He went through the typically variations and I ran to the bathroom to relieve myself of some of the beer that was quickly running through me. When I returned I asked him again and he drunkenly said, "N-J-R-E-I!" I said, "NO! It's N-J-E-R-I! It's Njeri... with an N!" Carlos said, "Dude! Do you think she's wearing a shirt with an N on it for decoration!" The host then noticed the N on my New Balance tennis shoes and we all had a hearty laugh about it. I said, "There's a clear sign I wasn't invited!" and we all continued laughing at ourselves as party crashers.

Shorty

At the end of the night (after everyone had been cajoled for their idiosychrosies) Carlos was recaping the evening and each of our issues which had been brought out while eating crawfish (including his own). He began his summary with Brian, moved on to the HR rep, mentioned me with my funky name, and even commented on how he himself hadn't been personally invited to the party and looked at me and said, "You'll probably be invited next time & I won't!". The host then laughingly said, "And who ate the most?!" We all turned and looked at Shorty (his mound is the big one in the middle in the picture) and said, "Njeri's son!" Maybe Carlos won't invite me next time.