On New Year’s day, Terry and I hosted an all day party at our home. We figure not everyone goes out and party’s hard on New Year’s Eve. We ordered plenty of Lox, cream cheese and bagels along with a big ham shank. There were salads and vegetables and pastries for deserts. I picked up the pastries and bagels in the morning and Terry cooked on New Year’s Eve.
Kelly DeWayne Richards was the first guest to arrive. Terry had hired him to play piano. He came with his electronic piano and a microphone. In the kitchen, Terry and I prepared mimosas. Outside on the back patio we had a huge cooler full of beers, cyders and sodas. Gradually, guests arrived throughout the day. There were actors, artist authors and musicians. The official excuse for the party was that Analog Artist Digital World is in its fifth year.
I started this sketch before guests arrived. I is odd that I have seldom sketched my own living room. I sketched people into the scene as they sat down. James and Jasmin Barone brought along their baby who had on a New Years sash. On the Facebook invitation I had stated that it was a black and white themed party and the Barone’s ran with that theme. Terry was very pleased that Susannah Gilman and Billy Collins came to the party. Billy was once the poet laureate of the United states and his new book of poems, “Aimless Love” was just released in bookstores. I remember seeing a large display of the books in a Louisiana bookstore.
As the party warmed up, people got up to the mic to sing. Even I got up to the microphone at one point. Terry is quite a ham when she has a microphone in hand. I always like how Mark Baratelli sings his set to his own over the top cadence. I sang “Somewhere Out There” with him and it was a challenge to mimic his performance. I just belted out vowels here and there to hit the right notes. Susannah claims she is incapable of singing which means a performance would be all the more entertaining.
Terry’s writing buddies stayed all day and well into the night. Janet Benge had to leave early because of a writing assignment. When the last guests finally left, Terry and I cleaned up as best we could. I made a resolution to loose some weight this year, but now the pantry and fridge were full of beers, pastries and other sinful fattening foods. I’ll start to diet once all that food is gone. Our refrigerator broke after the party which means many of those fattening perishables ended up in the trash.