Pre-surgery party brings surprise guests

No one likes surprises more than I do. Many guests didn't know I'm the "bubby" of little Grace.

I wasn't really planning on taking pix but when Peggie arrived I spontaneously pulled out my camera to photograph this honest-to-goodness fashion plate.

Peggie came to color my hair. She chose a L'Oreal shade b/c neither of us could locate my regular Clairol 112A. When the dye job was finished my hair looked a shocking bright orange. I was mortified. After a while the color calmed down. Peggie said the air had oxidized it.

My 88-yr-old mom prepared these carrot cupcakes w/cream cheese frosting. I settled on her brownies, as well as Mark's chocolate pudding pie and Clare's vanilla trifle with fruit. On Monday I'll have Joann's chocolate cake for breakfast. What a reason to get outa bed in the morning.

Claudia would sing for us later on. At parties I like everyone to utilize their talents or tell a good tale.

I asked Clare, the trifle maker, to tell the story of buying her new car, a Ford.

My sister Donna told about buying her new HP laptop.

Claudia's husband, Barry, is an English teacher and a master gardener.

Claudia, an unabashed francophile who studied at McGill U in Quebec, has lived a truly rich and exciting life. One of her most interesting stories is when she and Barry moved out of their Elkins Park house where they'd raised their two boys and into a smaller but equally lovely house in Oreland/Glenside.

Claudia simply could not get used to the new house and wanted to move back to the old house.

I think she's finally come to enjoy her new house.

Who knows? Maybe it's in a low-electrolyte zone or high-thermal-conduction area. I'm just making this up. But maybe there truly was something defective about the plain on which she now lives. Maybe her energy has subsequently transformed the place satisfactorily. We know so little about these eternal verities.

The pie brokers: Mike brought a delicious tomato pie and Mark brought a pudding pie. I am a pudding lover from way back.

Here's sweetie-pie Fontaine who made a huge batch of fried chicken and wings w/ salsa. She's on my Kidney Helper List of people who will help out when I'm re-cooping from surgery. What a frightful thought! How can this be happening to me? Oh, I forgot. I've made peace with it.

Judy is a librarian at the Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue Beth Shalom. They're cleaning out the library, much to the sadness of the older congregants, and donating the books to other places. Noam, who is always tired, helped me get rid of most of the books in my house. People can't bear to give up their beloved books and must see them safely donated somewhere else. Had Noam dropped off my books in the Dumpster, I wouldn't have cared, just so they were outa my house and I was oblivious to the dumping.

We had two food tables, one in the dining room on the desk-turned-table and one on the kitchen table.

Grace has a keen interest in studying people's faces. She takes long fearless looks at people. Fascinating!

I wore my 'popcorn' shirt for the party. I made absolutely nothing, except a pitcher of ice-cold water and a thermos of hot water for tea.

Ellen bought a delicious Indian dish of basmati rice and chicken w/ golden raisins.

Laura brought fresh fruit. Phil brought huge mouth-puckeringly delicious strawberries.

We had a good-size crowd.

Boyfriend Scott came over after getting only 90 minutes of sleep, he's always sleep-deprived. Joann said, Oh, your boyfriend is a younger man!

I'm so used to Scott that I forgot he's 13 yrs younger. He's very politically astute and got riled up when talking about politix in WI. Well, said Barry, that's what you get when the Democrats fail to vote.

After the party, I came back to Scott's for the evening. Sarah and my sister Donna stopped over and the four of us were in Scott's bedroom. Me and Scotty were under the covers, having woken up from our naps.

Donna said it felt weird walking into a group of strangers. She looked great but I'd put my camera away.

I told them about the responsibility of being the leader of New Directions. I have no one to talk to about this. When you're under the covers, it makes for a more intimate discussion, as Freud well knew.

I really dislike talking about myself, I said to Sarah and Donna, but I had to prepare my members well in advance of my upcoming kidney surgery. I kept quiet about it as long as I could and then I began spilling the beans, first slowly so that not everyone knew, and then gradually everyone became aware.

Believe it or not, I do not like attention. I like to stay in the background. Not that I don't have an ego but I prefer the soto voce approach.

I do however love talking about 'process,' so it was a great treat talking about the group to Sarah and Donna who understood me.

Sarah said her hero in our group is "Laura," who shared her story in the most recent Compass. Laura has schizoaffective d/o as do several other people in the group. She has very high standards for herself and is a high wage-earner despite her illness.

One of the great surprises was to see my friend Rob. Sarah and I were talking about how much we love Rob. He has an ineffable quality that makes people feel comfortable around him. When I sat next to him on the couch I automatically put my arm around him.

This is what life is about. Good friends.