look into your heart - you will find there's nothing left to hide

From CNN.com tonight: 'President Bush and other top officials joined thousands gathered across the country Sunday in tearful tributes, prayers and quiet reflection on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.'

Clearly they didn't get the memo about my birthday party.

Actually, it wasn't that raucous; it's hard to get too raucous on a Sunday afternoon, especially since I'm taking pains with my apartment to make it more grown-up (some mementos from college notwithstanding--the catfish, Prom King, and the hordes of romance novels are hardly adultlike, but I'm trying). But, most of my favorite people who were in the area showed up, and fun was had by all. No one had a heart attack on my premises, so hopefully this means that I will not be subject to a class-action lawsuit from my friends in the near future. Verdicts on the food:

1) The devilled eggs, corn casserole, spinach artichoke dip, and potato salad were all enjoyed, but were too standard to merit a lot of excitement.
2) The baked beans won quite a few converts to my mother's recipe; in fact, several people put them on top of their maidrites, which was a stunning innovation. Mine weren't quite the same as hers (I cooked mine with the lid on--was I supposed to?) but they were v. close and v. delicious. I'm going to eat them for dinner tomorrow night too! I bought some potato chips special for that occasion.
3) The maidrites (aka sloppy joes) were a hit with the nonvegetarians in the audience--particularly the one kid who was born in Minnesota, and the excitement when he heard that they were there was so visible on his face that everyone else laughed in stunned amazement. However, when I mentioned that they are also occasionally called 'loose meat sandwiches', some of my raunchier friends turned the conversation to decidedly-non-family-safe venues.
4) The chocolate chip chewies were devoured, but not at the rate I anticipated, which means I had an entire pan left over--I sent a bunch home with Claude and Vidya, and will take some to work tomorrow so that I don't end up eating them all (which I'm definitely capable of--I made them, so I can vouch for their ingredients, but they're so addictive that I'm sure fairies must be smuggling cocaine into the flour).
5) The Indian flag jello salad (which my family may recognize in the more familiar guise of Christmas ribbon salad, although I replaced the red layer with an orange layer) didn't set properly--I don't know what I did wrong! But, the jello salad was more for shock value anyway, so I don't care.
6) The strawberry shortcake was the sleeper hit of the party--and everyone was willing to try, and subsequently won over by, the idea of putting half and half on their strawberry shortcake. Mmm. I love strawberry shortcake so much, and these were perfect, especially w/the fresh strawberries I bought this morning, so it was fantastic.
7) The funfetti birthday cake wasn't even cut into, since we were too busy stuffing ourselves with strawberry shortcake--so I'll have to take it to work tomorrow.

Anyway, moral of the story is that I should have invited more people--there were people from work that I would have invited, but I didn't think I would have room. In actuality, no one even sat on the patio, so if the party had gotten bigger it probably would have split--and there would have been more people to eat the food and spread the cholesterol around. Oh, well, next time I'll change things up a bit.

My birthday party was fantastic, but I'm also glad it's over--as you can tell, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen the last two days, and after I clean up tomorrow, I'll want a break for a couple of days. Tonight was lovely, though, especially with the mix of oldest friends, newer-but-still-old friends, and friends from India. Also, Claudia stayed after everyone else took off, and we drank tea and caught up for a couple of hours--I hadn't seen her since before I left for Seattle, which feels like ages ago, since she was on the east coast all last week. So, all is well in my world again.

It's officially my birthday, and I'll be officially 25 in less than six hours (Iowa time--my birth time was 8:11am). Ugh. Haha. 25 isn't that bad, but then again every day is one step closer to the grave, so it's not like 25 is swell either. I'm going to go to bed now, and when I wake up I'll be old! Happy 9/11, everyone.