So the party wasn't as "big" or "cool" as I thought it would be.

(Apparently the last one must have turned out better.)

But it was a chance to see some people I haven't seen in a long time, get out of the house, dance, and people-watch as some really weird characters cut the rug.

Background on Mike: Larn and I met Mike during our freshman year of college, when we began to go to ballroom classes. Guys completely outnumbered girls at these classes about 4 to 1, so being the "cute" girls there meant it wasn't very hard to meet people. ["Cute" is loosely used, mind you. This was an engineering school, after all.]

Anyway, Mike was a junior in Electrical and Computer Engineering. We spent a lot of time with him and another dancer, Chris H, who is quite possibly one of the two best dancers I've ever known. Mike developed an infatuation with Larn, which caused some complicated situations. He was Larn's defacto dance partner [mine was my competition partner Yan.] But his infatuation grew to be a problem so he sort of dropped out of Larn's circle.

But if life sees fit to throw a couple of old college friends together on the same side of the country, it's easy to let bygones be bygones.

The party itself was in a dance studio, with mirrors lining the walls. We were some of the first people there even though we showed up an hour after the party started.

It was great to see Larn and Obi again, since it's been months. They introduced us to a couple of fellow alums and we stood and chatted for awhile before I had my reunion with Mike. He was very friendly, gracious, and happy to see me - he told me that I looked great (and I told him the same, since he cut off most of his problem hair and has been working out - he's quite passable now except for those scary ballroom Swish Hips...)

Larn and I were wearing the "uniform for party with unknown guest list" - black shirt, blue jeans, some sort of belt adornment. We began digging into the Smirnoff Black Ice that we bought very quickly. That stuff is gooood.

The party was made up of a very random assortment of people, and we weren't entirely sure that one or two of them hadn't just wandered in off the street. There was one middle-aged, lanky guy who was really creepy - he didn't talk to anyone else the whole time, just sat and watched. (At one point he got up and started dancing by himself. Really scary shit. Looked like a dying robot.)

There were quite a few ballroom people there - as expected. You see, Mike's unemployed. When he got laid off he decided to pursue ballroom full-time.

Now, ballroom people will ballroom dance to ANYTHING. Some Jay-Z song came on and Rim said to me "We dance to this all the time. It's a samba." Ugh. Some things just weren't meant for a Quickstep, people.

As far as the musical selection was concerned, it was about 50% 80's music, 20% popular music, and 30% Michael Jackson songs. Weird. "I love Michael Jackson and Eminem!" Mike told me when questioned about his musical tastes. A natural pair.

Early in the party, Obi and Hunter were being couch potatoes, so Larn dragged me up and introduced me to Jeff and Ben, two guys she had met earlier in the night. I ended up talking to them for a while, strangely. Not unsurprisingly, my mention of working in videogames elicted a "You know, I did a video game on the Commodore 64 in high school..." type of reaction from Ben, who was a customer support technician at some software company.

Jeff, who appeared flamingly gay but flirted like he wasn't, said "I LOVE that [SimExpansionPack] game!" When I exclaimed that I had worked on it, we got all Linda Richman and hugged. We danced together a couple of times - if there's one thing you can count on, it's gay guys at a ballroom party wanting to tear up the floor.

Late in the evening, Rim arrived at the party - Rim is the angry Catholic ballroom guy with only half of his right forearm (and a stunted hand). Last time we saw Rim was when we played Settlers of Catan during our trip to San Jose for the GDC, and he was very poorly behaved and cranky indeed.

Actually, a general truth about the ballroom crew was and is that they never reacted particularly warmly to Hunter and Obi (but especially Obi). It's sad, and it's honestly mostly out of jealousy or something since there's no other plausible explanation, but maybe in time they'll stop being poopheads. Admittedly, Hunt and Obi were a little too guarded and didn't come off too friendly as a result.

Rim asked me to hustle with him, and I obliged - even though ballroom dancing during many songs is pretentious, there weren't many people around at that point and I missed good partner dancing. It was also a chance to demonstrate to Hunter that yes, Rim is crippled but that doesn't mean he can't be a decent lead. I also obliged him with a follow-up samba where he, like most ballroom guys, got fixated on spinning me around 3 or 4 times in a row. "That girl can spin."

Soon after, our new "friend" Jeff headed out, and approached Larn to ask for her phone number since it turns out they're pretty much neighbors. He asked for my number too, and for some reason I gave it to him (of course I plan on getting a new phone this month anyway, so the joke's on him I guess.) As this was going on, Jeff informed me that I "look just like his good friend....except that you're a lot prettier. I'm ogling your grannies, I hope you don't mind!" Once he left, I asked Larn what this meant, and we deduced that Jeff was trying to communicate to me that he, despite his gayness, was in fact checking out my boobs. Charming.

At about 1:30, the party had cleared out enough that it was really only the genuine freaks (Mr. Creepy doing the spastic robot in the center of the floor, for example), and our foursome took that opportunity to take our leave. Poor Mike must have had quite a time ushering the last of the strange ones out - when I tried to say goodbye, there was a short and pushy strung-out woman giving him a full inquisition about his dance classes.

Rim walked out with Hunter and I after Obi and Larn had exited in the opposite direction, and said "You know, we'll have to get together sometime soon." I just nodded and smiled, knowing that after his GDC behavior the chance of getting Hunter to agree to such a thing was close to zero. Rim's only really bearable on the dance floor or if he's one-on-one ... his group ettiquette is pretty horrendous. Luckily, the night he suggested was Tuesday, which is our "company party". Thank goodness for that.

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The more that the SimSequel wants me, the more I push away. They have no real claim to my time, and I just really need a couple of days to myself - the first since VA has gotten back from India. I'll think about writing more object text tonight or tomorrow. I've already done them a huge favor, and I know I'll be writing for them all week.

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On a final note, Pokemon Channel is insanely cute. It's a little meta - you spend a lot of time watching "TV" with Pikachu - but there's some interesting stuff in there for a game that's really designed for 6-year olds.

The best part is probably when Pikachu "learns" the TV theme song and begins singing along every time he hears it.

Awwwwwwww.

So I'm off to indulge my Pika obsession a bit more. Happy Sunday.