He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross..."

Sunday, January 01, 2006

[16:02pm] Yes, indeed, the crowd had been a rather noisy rabble, but considerate enough, in the end. The only screams were heard between the hours of three and five o’clock in the morning when the girls began to pull various sorts of pranks on the boys in the basement. Collette never asked what sorts of pranks were attempted. And following church (through which Joe nearly dosed), OLeif, Collette, Boy, and Rose returned to the Saint’s to aid in vacuuming the confetti, scrubbing mud off the kitchen floor, and washing the last of the dishes.

But as the evening began, the following made their presence: Jimmy and Loraine Saint (whose finger was cut seriously and needed twenty stitches that very afternoon), Jeremiah and Freja Toast (who stayed till about one in the morning), Joe and Rose, Boy, Augustus and Pablo Honey, Susie and Sunrise Popples, Bob and Plato Buckle and Plato’s friend, Bisquick, (a little black dude with a big grin and card tricks up his sleeve), Molly (who once again wore wisps of blue hair from her buns), Samantha Bee (who spent a quarter of the night talking to her “boy friend” on her new Christmas present cell phone) and her brother, Marcus, (who was picked up before midnight by his folks, as he was only in the fifth grade), Lilia Roosevelt (who had brought her video camera to add footage to her mom’s documentary intended to be shown for the opening of the church next spring), Julia Poach, and eleven year old Daisy George. It was quite a gathering.

And as they congregated, Augustus was discussing with OLeif how this year had been awarded an extra full second on all the clocks (for some reason which Collette did not gather before hearing Rose say that she had brought “Blackbeard’s Ghost” for a viewing later in the evening). And Joe began showing her the backpack of blackcats which he had saved from the Fourth of July. While he was at it, he dug out his iPod to show Collette how he had added a good number of the voice recital pieces (all of which Carrie-Bri had renamed – some too wittingly cruel to mention):

A young friend of Annamaria’s, piano piece – “Darn Those Stupid Perfectionists”

“Well… She had a Cold”

“The Hills WERE Alive (but now they’re dead)”

“Those of You with Weak Constitutions… you know what to do”

“Somewhere… A Village is Missing its Idiot”

And one of Collette’s personal favorites: Wally’s “Panis Angelicus” – “Devil in Disguise. Come on, Wally, who do you think you’re fooling?”

But all were in good fun. It was a well-known fact that all the children singing that night were sick.

Meanwhile, a bunch of the kids sat around and discussed life, complained about their siblings (who apparently screamed at them from time to time), they acted bored and “whatever” about the party, life in general, and past times, the usual… But they also laughed and joked and Collette knew they had their deeper serious thoughts. And all over, chip bags were opened and extra doses of caffeine began to fill the cups.

“I looked so bad in junior high,” sighed Samantha Bee, putting on lipstick, (who was still technically in the eighth grade).

“I think I had energy back then,” groaned Augustus, sitting next to her on the couch, fully relaxed.

And the Saints were beginning to settle into their new home – white stuccoed walls (with a shiny hue), 60’s floor lamps, chairs with faded needlepoint cushions pulling from their string-ties, and an old brass door knocker on the front door… Joe analyzed the stuccoed wall before taking a picture of it on his cell phone camera.

“I like these walls,” he said. “Don’t they look like mountain ranges?”

“They do remind me of the Alps,” Collette agreed.

“Whipped cream mountains,” Joe added, and then talked with Augustus about their separate skiing adventures.

Meanwhile, the incidents of the evening began to unfold:

#1 – Plato tracked black ash into the living room from the bonfire, and scraped it into the carpet.

#2 – Rose spilled Coke on her turquoise shirt.

#3 – Marcus tripped down the stairs (after having snagged himself on a dull silver hook in the wall), and went flying into the wall ahead of him, his Pepsi soaking the carpet. Meanwhile, he rolled around on the floor in pain while Jimmy unscrewed the hook and Collette and Molly took the soda out of the carpet and off the walls while Molly told Collette about how one of her teachers fed her houseplants Pepsi, and they thrived. (Meanwhile, Collette could not tell if the Pepsi had merely cleaned the walls, or if it had removed the paint.)

#4 – Fire crackers nearly blew off Joe’s head at midnight… the usual proceedings…

And in other occurrences, Joe stuck toothpicks in his braces, most of the kids guffawed over “Donald Duck” in the basement (Collette looked at the run-time on the DVD case and went back up the stairs – “Good; that will keep them occupied for another four and a half hours,” she thought to herself. But she knew better), the kids told each other to shut up from time to time while OLeif constructed an eyeless eight-legged prehistoric test tube monster out of his gray sculpting clay and stuck him in an old apple-butter jar full of Dr. Pepper, two wall clocks continued to tick on the coffee table while Rose, Bob, Pablo, and Molly played “Egyptian Rat,” and OLeif was telling Jeremiah about how his boss couldn’t spell Semper Reformanda and Collette dully noted that Jeremiah’s voice sounded like Shepherd’s, Molly explained how Miguel was learning Japanese (which was good because Ashley-Sue loved Asians) after OLeif had sent Molly to the corner for saying something “mean” about Magnus, Boy had brought in a table hockey game…

“It’s like 40 years old,” he laughed as he lugged it through the front door in an old baby walker box. “My dad made me bring it.”

Meanwhile, Collette was thinking on how the evening could be glorifying to God, even in such a simple gathering. Jimmy had gathered the kids together to read from Jeremiah 29, just before midnight, and had discussed several things. There had been a time of prayer to begin the evening, and it had been a good time on a more deeper level, for which the kids seemed to really have a desire.

And Collette had thought to only eat vegetables that evening (to make up for the appalling sugar intake over Christmas), but there were no vegetables present that evening. Apparently the invitation had not been extended.

And as the evening wore on, the kids played “Capture the Flag” in the back yard. Collette walked out for a spell herself, just craning back her head to gaze at the stars in the heavens. The city lights were not quite as bright in that part of town, and the stars seemed unusually brilliant. And in the cold and dark and their jeweled presence flung far away from where she stood, she felt an especially sound comfort there, thinking of God’s Holy power and all-encompassing might as Creator of those stars and the universe.

And as midnight struck while Collette was walking upstairs from the basement, the world erupted in fireworks. She smiled a bit to herself, thinking it odd (yet strangely satisfying) to partake in an entire time zone setting off fire works simultaneously, screaming, yelling, banging pans, and lighting up the sky in whites, greens, and reds, and causing general havoc all around. A welcome celebration.

Later, as the crowd eventually tried to die down at around five o’clock in the morning, all that remained were three of the four Saints, Collette and OLeif, Joe and Rose, the Honey boys, Boy, Samantha, Lilia, and Daisy. The house never seemed to quite settle down. The girls screamed just to be loud, Joe absently sang “Santa Baby” to himself while he set up camp underneath the card table where Jimmy and Rose still played at table hockey, OLeif introduced the jazz-swing band “Squirrel Nut Zippers” to the guys on Jimmy’s stereo, confetti lay strewn in magical heaps of bright colors and shiny-ness on the carpet, Daisy attempted to put lip gloss on Jimmy (who good-naturedly obliged), and Collette settled herself down in her fuzzy red robe over “Tabletalks” while Joe and Rose called each other stupid-heads over a controversial game of table hockey…

“Stupid-head,” Boy laughed to himself, walking by.

So, yes, some sorts of odd things came from the late-night fellowship, including many random quotes which were all the more odd and rather funny when pulled out of context – coming from various conversations while passing through rooms or being distracted between several conversations at once.

“I think I’m going to kill something.”

“Your brother’s broken; the wall is dead.”

“How do you say his name again? Dostoevsky?”

“He’s going to write a poem about you being twins?”

“Most things are eligible to be thrown in the bonfire. Junior Highers are off-limits.”

“Yeah… So my French teacher cusses.”

“Close your eyes… Pretend you are at home… and open your eyes. You have a pony.”

“I know. You’re a meanie face times five.”

“I made those meatballs. I mean, if they’re good, I made them.”

“Pretend you’re an angel. Now juggle.”

“You’re cynical. I don’t like you… I’m kidding. I, I, I like you.”

“They’re confused with their ethnicity or something. So that’s cool.”

“Cause like, no one’s going to argue with a 45-year old pushy lounge singer.”

“We were waiting for the pizza to come out, and they’re like, ‘Snuggle-fest ’05!’”

“Hey, what’s up, Monkey Girl? Can I call you Monkey Girl?”

“My aunt’s a Scientologist.”

“I know. My parents hate me. No, they totally don’t. Don’t cry, guys.”

“Did you hear, the queen of England once made hot wings for the Duchess of York. That’s how they were invented.”

“Silk worms live in China. They don’t live in France because France is French.”

“Did you know that in I Thessalonians Jesus preached against playing dice?” – “Liar!”

“A googol means beyond a googol, so it doesn’t count.”

“He’s really Lebanese, but he was born in Trinidad.”

“I love you times five, times close five.”

“I just punched Bob… I feel bad.”

“Of course not. Who wants a bald daughter?”

Oh, the course an evening takes…

“He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and little below in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back; and began to tumble, and so continued to do so until it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more…

“Thus far did I come laden with my sin, nor could aught ease the grief that I was in, till I came hither. What a place is this? Must here be the beginning of my bliss? Must here the burden fall from off my back? Must here the strings that bound it to me, crack? Blessed cross! Blessed sepulchre! Blessed rather be the Man that there was put to shame for me.”

– Taken from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress