Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
January 28, 2008 - Slumber Party
Our host and his newborn baby
On Saturday, we attended the annual Red Dwarf marathon held by my college friend, The ER Doctor, who is currently looking for a career change and may, at some point, require a slightly different nickname. This was the 11th year she and her husband have held the marathon, although last year was the first time we attended.
We had plans to stay overnight this time, unlike last year, when we only came up during the day. This year, we also arrived earlier, so that we were almost the first people there. Also, I think this year it was a little warmer. I had, however, gone shopping for some non-itchy sweater the previous day in Kohl's, using the gift card The Gryphon had given me for Christmas. I wore a lighter sweater with a jacket, and had packed warmer sweaters, just in case.
The Gryphon helped The ER Doctor in the kitchen while I chatted with her husband and greeted their brand-new baby boy, born just a couple weeks ago. Their other son, who's nearing two years old, stayed with grandparents overnight, as they figured it would be harder for him to deal with all the extra people.
The newborn was calm and only fussed a little when he was hungry. He doesn't yet even have the lung capacity to cry loudly.
Eventually, people became arriving, many of whom we'd seen last year, such as The Firefighter and the Museum Director, with whom I got to talking about the book I'm researching, My Wedding, My Way: Real Weddings, Real Women, Real Budgets. They told me a lot about their wedding, which they held on the family farm and did nearly everything themselves. The Museum Director agreed to do an interview with me over e-mail for the book, which made me really happy.
I also saw The WPSU Alumnus, who was on The Rubber Chicken Comedy Closet with me back in the day. He and his wife had also left their 18-month-old with family members for the weekend. We ended up sharing a room with them later in the evening, when it was time to sleep. From talking to him throughout the course of the day, I learned that he's very interested in getting back into voice work, so I promised him I'd run down a few of my contacts and see what advice I can give him.
Other familiar faces from last year included Twonk, as well as the very tall fellow Penn Stater who had given me advice about digitizing audio the previous year (although I had to admit that I'd gotten so distracted with wedding plans that I hadn't followed through). He told me that I should go to ThinkGeek.com and look into the Ion USB Cassette Deck, which comes with software that makes it easy to rip audio cassettes into digital format. I think it would be a wise investment, when I think of how many irreplaceable recordings I have of my work on WPSU. Seeing The WPSU Alumnus again only reminded me how much I'd like to preserve that audio. Plus, then it will also be easier to share it with others.
Missing this year was The Musician, who was touring with his Celtic band. There were a couple other familiar faces, as well, many of them friends of The ER Doctor and her husband from our Penn State days.
As people arrived, they were hungry for lunch, for we gathered in the dining room and munched on fresh veggies, hummus with pita bread, and a bean dip that The Gryphon and I brought, called Texas Caviar, which is served with blue corn chips. There were various other delectables, including homemade cookies and homemade bourbon brownies.
After a session of game playing with the Wii, we settled down to watch three episodes of Red Dwarf, including the first episode. Then our host made a food run with a couple others to pick up an order from the local Indian restaurant. While they were gone, we watched a couple other episodes.
Dinner, I thought, was delicious. I love Indian food, and one of the dishes was Chicken Vindaloo, which is the favorite of David Lister on Red Dwarf.
Next, we watched the straight-to-video Futurama feature, Bender's Big Score. Ironically, The Gryphon and I had rented it recently! Then we watched The Simpsons movie, part of which I missed because I was in the kitchen talking to The ER Doctor and The Museum Director. That's OK; we'd seen that in the theater.
The Gryphon had stayed up late the night before, and as he gets sleep-deprived during the week, he slept through most of both of those movies.
I think it was after The Simpsons that we got to enjoy some birthday cake, in honor of one of the guests, who was turning 40. Knowing that many of the partygoers were musically inclined, and that several had performed in a group called The Dreamers during our Penn State days, I called out that they should sing "Happy Birthday" in four-part harmony. They did even better than that.
One guy, who reminds me a lot of Michael O'Donohue, one of the original writers of Saturday Night Live, improvised a song called "40 Candles" to the tune of "16 Candles," the others sang backup in four-party harmony. It was brilliant, and afterwards, I told him that if he was ever in the Philadelphia area, he should check out ComedySportz.
The
birthday boy is wearing the green sweatshirt,
right of center, next to the lead singer (black T-shirt)
The cake was good; The Gryphon and I shared a piece. I believe that afterwards was when we watched a really interesting documentary about the making of a failed U.S. pilot for an American version of Red Dwarf. It was fascinating to learn about how the productions were so different, and how the American version failed primarily because the producers refused to listen to the original writers about some problems with characterization and plot.
I was starting
to fall asleep, too, even though it was fairly early. We watched a couple
episodes of The Venture Brothers, and then The Gryphon and I set
up our sleeping bags upstairs. Unfortunately, our air mattress had died
over new year's, so we essentially were sleeping on a sleeping bag on
a hard floor. Next time, we should bring some extra padding!
More from the Red Dwarf marathon:
Moral:
After 35, you really need an air mattress.
Copyright
2008 by Alyce Wilson
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