in which things are set on fire

A few weeks ago, I decided that the best way to celebrate moving was to get everyone I could in one place and stuff their faces.  That happened last night.  We had burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, hush puppies, and baked beans.  When it got dark, we lit a fire and brought out the marshmallows.  I wish I'd taken more photos, but my brain was in a million places at once, it seems, and I found I was too busy enjoying myself to remember to grab the camera!  I didn't get photos of everyone, sadly, but I did manage to snap some of The Best People in the World (many of whom were conveniently located in my parents' backyard last night).

Chris and Peter.  Two of my oldest friends.  Christy has been putting up with me since kindergarten (!!), and Peter since 7th grade.  I decided to decorate with my globe collection, which led to a rollicking conversation about politics, cartography, and the mythical "choose your own adventure" globe.

Newer friends.  Marley I met in college when she started dating a friend from high school (to whom she's now married).  She is a fantastic photographer (responsible for last November's photo shoot with my brother), and together with her hubby Alex is transforming a house from something hilariously bad to something amazingly gorgeous.  C I met through similar circumstances.  She started dating my friend Adam and is one of the reasons I decided to stop being so dang terrified and try my hand at cooking.  Clearly I make it a point to surround myself with beautiful people.

Also beautiful dogs.  Leilani made the rounds, but mainly hung out with Adam and Sam (pictured here).  She is half Norwegian Elkhound and it was hovering around 90 degrees outside, so she didn't do a great deal of moving once the food came out.  And yes, Sam IS wearing silly toe-shoes.

It was kind of too hot for a fire, but we lit one anyway.  Sparks flew, marshmallows were scorched, and s'mores were devoured.  Yum.

The evening ended with a fantastic game we usually call "The Drawing Game" or "The Story Game."  It's basically a version of Telephone, only you start with a written sentence, which the next person converts to a drawing.  The person after that, seeing only the drawing, converts it back to a sentence, and so on and so on until you run out of room on your paper and hilarity ensues.  Our game involved poor Adam becoming both Bill Nye the Science Guy and then Hitler in pretty quick succession.  Peter played a part, too, but I think he stayed himself.  That hair is pretty remarkable.

So the farewell party is done, and the packing shall begin.  Just not today.  I managed to sleep in until 2:30 pm (later than I have since high school!), and have spent the day eating leftover hushpuppies and reading.  I'm hoping that if I continue to put off the packing, in the meantime someone will invent a way for me to move all of my belongings from here to West Virginia without actually packing them up.  No? Dang.