on entertaining

this weekend has been very busy here at 24 garden street.

thursday night: ashley and divya had their sabliere girls and punches (new pledges) come over for a "rockstar" cocktail party. we got the apartment--well, the common areas--cleaned professionally for that. ivanaldo and his three girls came thursday morning and did an excellent job. i'm glad we can have a clean slate off of which to work. anyway, i wasn't going to lock myself in my room while 40 girls were in our apartment, so i put on some rockstar clothes (easy!) and joined them and their champagne. i felt Really out of place, though, so eventually, i took my books and headed to prathima's. on the way, jeff called to invite me to middlesex, so i went there instead. saw: taymour, terry, hugo, kynam, and ken (and tim and erko). those were good times, but i was just really tired so i came home and slept.

tonight: had my pledge babies over for dinner. i baked all day!! woke up around 9am, and went straight to the kitchen. i was trying to be quiet for a while because i thought that divya was still sleeping...because her door was shut. turns out she had already gone to work, but her room was A Mess. whereas mine and ma's are ridiculously clean and tidy. who knows how long that will last. anyway, i made espresso brownies from a recipe that anna gave me. well, hers had the brownies made from mix, but i made mine from scratch. i added some coffee grounds (i think, hazelnut cinnamon) and a shot of kahlua. mmmm, they were a hit!! there are only two left. then i made a batch of normal brownies...guess i should've made them espresso, too. anyway, i went all out and baked them individually in my silicone heart-shaped mold. it took a really long time because my mold only made 6 brownies at a time, it took about 40 minutes for each batch in the oven, and i made a total of about 32 brownies. anyway, i also made some berry cobbler...also from scratch, also excellent. i only used half of my cobbler topping though, so that's in the fridge now...waiting for another cobbler.

santi and lars made the dinner. it was SO yummy. lars made an appetizer of balsamic tomatoes and onions, with some oregano(?) sprinkled all over. mmm. then santi made an incredible seafood (and chicken) paella. SOSO good. there was lobster, scallops, and shrimp...and the rice was cooked with some type of alcohol, i believe. delicious. santi also brought plaintains, which we ate while we waited for everyone to show up (seth, santi, and lars came first). anyway, there were plenty of leftovers, and i got to keep them all!! so there's lunch and dinner for the next few days - yay!

what was really great was that we were all able to sit in the living room and eat. there was enough space with the couch, the two armchairs, and the yellow chairs. i love my pledge babies! they helped clean up and everything, so the place is spic and span clean again. all the dishes are loaded in the washer...just waiting for a few more things, but they are already rinsed (just as we do at the house). i hope we do this again sometime.

tomorrow night: hosting the chorallaries afterparty. i just hope it doesn't ruin the place, and that people don't get too drunk. it kinda ruined mine and prathima's plan to actually Leave the party...but that's alright. it should be okay, as long as there are no drunk alums. also, there won't be a guest group, which reduces the sketchiness.

also: bought two white calla lily stems for the bathroom, and three pink...errr, i forget what they're called...stems for the living room. they're like...very petal-y, that when they're tight and not open yet, they look like a round ball. the ball looks like a brussel sprout, except colored and with the green part of the stem that holds the bottom of the ball. when they open, they are very full. help...?

anyway, it's a full weekend! plus, i have to write my paper. should post pictures soon...