The Tale Of The Alternate Thanksgiving (R)

After working through the weekend (and it was hell this weekend, let me tell you) I had to get the penthouse ready for our Alternate Thanksgiving.
I got up around two to finish up the cleaning and get the serving bowls out and the kitchen prepped for the food that would be arriving at six. All of that took longer than expected, of course. My flatmates were busy little bees and actually removed their things from the dining room and the laundry area on Sunday and Monday. I actually had another table in the laundry room to put the overflow dishes and what-not and didn't have to use washer and dryer, like last year. I also had to de-Santa-fy the house. Mommie Dearest got into a frenzy of decorating, not as much as years gone by but, more than I like and a bit on the tacky side. I let it stay until he left, right before my guests arrived, then I went about and put the stuffed Snoopy Santa and the tacky Santa Frogs and the other horrors he placed about the penthouse in more discreet places.

Like drawers. And closets.

I finally got everything together and set up the dining room table but, I hadn't cleaned the smaller bathroom so, as I was taking my shower, I was cleaning it at the same time. It's quite a testament to me to be able to shave and scrub a toilet simultaneously!

Lemon Fresh Joy and Morgan Wells arrived as I was showering. The latter was in charge of the nibbly-bits so he had to get everything put out before the rest of the guests arrived. Luckily they brought supplies for pomegranate cosmopolitans since Miss Tene decided to come late, and she was in charge of the liquor.

After a bit of a wait, and believe it or not, I was making cocktails but not partaking, the other guests started to come and the party got in full swing. I had a great idea, I set out my birthday book, and made everyone sign it under their birthday so I had a guestbook and their birthdays at the same time. Most of the time was spent on the phone and running up and down the three flights of steps to open the door for guests and making drinks, even though half the people there are bartenders. For some reason (they said something about me being the host or some other nonsense) I had to make the libations. Go figure! I coordinated the cleanup of the first course and the placement of the main courses which ran the gamut of culinary delights. A delicious turkey, which Miss Patti cooked in a bag so it came out very moist, a ham that was spicy and delicious, lasagna made by the loving hands of Joy, homemade perogies that Luap's lovely wife brought. We also had pizza, brought by Dorian and plenty of other dishes and trimmings. Believe me, no one went home hungry. Most especially after the desserts, consisting of three pumpkin pies, an orange flavoured bundt cake (Darrin and his new boyfriend), cherry cheese cake, apple-pecan pie, tiramisu (Miss Patti) and holiday cookies (brought by Little Jose).

After this gutbusting feast, we all sat around and watched videos of past shows. It was a scream. I had forgotten about a fashion show we did that I had a video tape of. Miss Patti's design house, Black Coffin Designs, threw a fashion extravaganza at the club many years ago. The reason we needed to watch it again was because Miss Tene looked VERY different at this time of...ahem...her life and most of the guests had never seen him...oops...her looking like that. Plus the fact that she fell off her shoes during her walk down the catwalk. It was a scream! To be fair, I showed a video of myself at Revival in one of my first shows ever, hairy armpits and all. It was many moons ago and I was still a raw talent. I will say that everyone agreed that I look pretty much the same (although I do shave, now), considering that a few at the party weren't even born when that particular footage was filmed. That sucks!

Johanna and Fernando and Big Jose had to go and open the club for Latin Night. The rest of us stayed and drank and ate even more. Dorian helped me with the dishes, he's so damn sweet and we laughed and chatted until Fernando rang and suggested we come to the club to see the show. I finished packing everything up into the fridge and off we went to the Studio Six to have even more fun. By now, I had started to imbibe and was feeling very little pain. Coupled with the turkey coma and the fact I had very little sleep on my Coma Monday, the liquor went right to my head. We had fun, the show was...the show (Lady Labelle read for filth another drag queen, someone we all rather dislike, it was too, too!) and as I was talking to Joey G., I realized I was done for the evening. Maybe it was when he asked me if I was trashed? I was, very! I turned to Miss Patti and asked, in a slurring voice, to take me home.
I was barely out of my party clothes when I passed out, with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.

After the dinner, while we were watching the videos, Miss Tene called for a shot and a toast. Of course, I was asked to make both! In my toast I said that Thanksgiving was a time to be with your family but, so many there couldn't be among their families. And that it was so great to be together now, surrounded by friends because, friends are the family you pick, not the one you are born into, so here's to my family of friends.

Once again, I feel so lucky to have such blessings in my life.

It was a wonderful night.