Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The Horror Film Buff opens gifts

When we first arrived at The Horror Film Buff's 40th birthday party, we said hello to some people, many of whom we'd last seen at Philcon.

Music was already playing, and there were a lot of balloons on the floor, so I started dancing around with the balloons, making sure to stay on beat.

A few other people joined in, playing balloon volleyball with me and mirroring my silly movements, as I took two balloons and used them like raver kids dancing with glow sticks, waving them in dramatic circles and arcs.

And this was before I'd had a drink..

When I finally checked out the drinks, I got myself some Kahlua with some milk. It was tasty but didn't pack much of a punch. Still, because I was acting silly, The Gryphon didn't believe me that I'd had very little to drink. Over the course of the evening, I had three drinks: two kahlua drinks (one with vodka) and one hard cider.

After a little while into the party, maybe an hour or so, The Horror Film Buff blew out candles on his film can shaped cake. Well, he tried, anyway. Someone had bought trick candles, and when he figured it out, he tried to put them out by snuffing them in his hand. Unfortunately, that doesn't really work, either. You have to dunk them in water!

The cake was delicious. It had sort of a ginger taste to it, with a chocolate fondant icing. I also had one chocolate chip cookie, but I was watching my food intake, so I avoided the rest of the table of tempting snacks.

The Horror Film Buff opened his presents, and everyone gathered around and made comments as he did. Clearly, the party guests had a good idea of what he would enjoy, such as a Cthullu plushie wearing a Santa hat, or a number of collectibles related to his various interests, such as science fiction and gaming.

I had a little fun with my camera then, taking some self-portraits in a mirror. This is the best one.

As the evening wore on, I socialized with many people I knew, such as the Fantasy Author, who is always really perky and fun at parties. This was one of the few times I'd been to a party where she wasn't dressed up: well, except for the pajama bottoms she'd chosen to wear.

"Is this a pajama party?" I asked, thinking I was overdressed in my black slacks, black top with sweetheart neckline and short, flirty sleeves, a tan patterned jacket, and red shoes.

"No, I just felt like wearing them," she told me.

I also spoke to someone I hadn't spoken to, who owns a business and always has a table in the Philcon dealer's room to sell movies and related paraphernalia. I wasn't at all surprised she'd be a friend of The Horror Film Buff's!

The Independent Filmmaker didn't make it, but her sister did. She's always the life of the party. I always think of her as a butterfly, because that's the costume she wore when I first met her, so I'll call her the Social Butterfly. She's always flitting around from conversation to conversation, making people smile.

One of the most entertaining parts of the party was that someone had brought a lot of pictures from the last 15 years of parties and social events. I didn't find any from more recent years when The Gryphon and I might have been in them, but it was fascinating to have a peak into other people's memories, especially when they looked a lot different than they do now.

The most popular set of pictures came from a Halloween party where The Horror Film Buff wore a communion dress. As you can imagine, a big, beefy, bearded guy in a lacy white dress was quite a sight. I still see it when I close my eyes.

As the evening wore on, the music got more danceable, probably because Dr. DJ took over from The Horror Film Buff, who had been playing a lot of stuff from movie soundtracks. He started playing some classics from the 80s that everybody loved, such as "Love Shack," and we danced our brains out.

During "Tainted Love," Dr. DJ got us started dancing the Zombie. He was shuffling from side to side with his head hanging down, as if searching for brains, and we told him to pass the dance to someone else, so he turned to the woman next to him and ate her brains. Then she started shuffling and stumbling around, and before you knew it, we all were. I haven't laughed so hard on the dance floor for a long time.

This crew was certainly not shy about being creative on the dance floor, which was why I felt so at home. I am perfectly capable of dancing normally, but I enjoy being silly to the song, especially if others are joining in.

A group of us got on the floor and danced to "The Time Warp", including The Dormouse, who used to appear in a weekly Rocky Horror Picture Show performance in State College back in the day. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just followed him.

I really didn't want to leave, but after another song, The Dormouse said he wanted to head out. He was our ride, so we said our good-byes. I got some great pictures first, though, of some acrobatics on the dance floor.

I hope when I have a 40th birthday party in a few years, we can come up with something that's this much fun.

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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