Paati o shimasho!

Well, the Pumpkin Carving Party was a complete success. I’m already planning for next year’s, which I want to make even better.

It came on the heels of a bit of a disastrous day at the office, from a productivity perspective. I could not make myself fall asleep Thursday night, so I ended up sleeping through my alarm this morning and got to work late. I’d scheduled a one-on-one lunch with my boss today, so that ate up an hour. Plus, I had to leave work early to get ready for the party. Fortunately, I’m mostly caught up at work, so this had no direct impact on my work. I was able to slide through work today, doing somewhat less than usual.

I got home and made last-minute preparations. All the food was baked or otherwise prepared, but I still had to wash out a tub so we could bob for apples, and I had to assemble everything for transportation. This was a significant engineering challenge, as I had only one small pickup truck in which to hold:

• Two large pumpkins
• A medium-sized tub
• A plate of deviled eggs
• A plate of green Brain Jell-O
• Sixteen chocolate cupcakes
• A bag of caramel popcorn
• Six apples
• Fourteen assorted knives

Plus, on the way there, I had to pick up meats, cheeses, and bread rolls for the main meal. I fit it all by putting the tub in the back of the truck and the two pumpkins in that, and the deviled eggs and Brain Jell-O on the seat next to me. Everything else fit on the floor or behind the seat.

I muscled my way through rush-hour traffic to arrive only a few minutes late at a friend’s house. I was thrilled to discover he’d invited a few friends to join us (I’d made it clear this party was open to friends of friends), so we ended up with thirteen people. A good number for a party.

And all of these extra friends needed to shoot a short film for school, too. They remembered that I have actual film experience (thanks to Saalon‘s Dreaming by Strobelight), so I gladly helped out behind the camera. We assembled a fun, silly little interpretation of one of the Canterbury Tales, I think. I had tons of fun. I even showed them how to edit the film using their VCR, a skill I learned from my fellow AMV creators. Very cool. I didn’t get home until 1:30 in the morning.

Can’t wait to do it again next year. Even though we never did bob for apples.