So I finally did what I've meant to do ever since moving into the Flagship: invited a few of my friendses over for a housewarming. Being an unrepentant MOCist, my biggest challenge was turning the swamp of LEGO pieces in my room into a space more conducive to a social gathering. Long-time readers may recall the last time I wrote about a similar situation. The results this time were not so good -- in fact, they looked abysmal. I found myself almost hoping people wouldn't show up at all, and save me the embarrassment of having them see the state of my apartment.

Such hopes were vain, however: the first guests, Mandy and Johnny (online alias "Jotsio"), phoned at six PM to announce their arrival -- surprisingly early, despite the fact that I vaguely remembered having specifically said they could come at that time. Cue my mad scramble to bulldoze the random, papery contents of the kitchen table off into an inconspicuous, already cluttered corner! I went down and let them in the front door, trying desperately to find the right words to prepare them psychologically for the nightmare scene that awaited them. If such words exist, they deserted me. I don't know what came out of my mouth. Something flustered and forgettable, no doubt.

I am eternally grateful that my friends are some very, very understanding people. (I suppose the fact that I'm such a shameless oddball might have something to do with it. ) I needn't have been so worried. After profuse apologies for the mess and another bout of bulldozing targeted at the LEGO situation, I began to relax and got busy in the kitchen.

Mandy and Johnny had brought the makings for an exquisite blend of Mexican and Finnish cuisine: Karelian rice pies, egg butter, hot-spicy avocado sauce, and jalapeño peppers. Mmm. Oh, and pear soda to go with the apple soda I bought. Mmm. I got myself set up to make pizza. I'm an old hand at that; I worked at a pizza place at one time. With Mandy preparing the crust and me doing the toppings, it was ready to bake in record time.

Her husband Johnny, or Jotsio, is an incredibly smart, witty, and knowledgeable guy. Get him started in conversation, and you'll have no end of interesting things to talk about -- er, listen to. This worked out very well, because neither Mandy nor I are distinguished talkers. He works as a design engineer for Nokia, and keeps a blog (in Finnish, of course) where he spins such ideas as modern hunter-warrior supermarkets, tree-ring cities, and coffee-coupon economies into insightful and highly entertaining narratives. I have to congratulate my dear cousin for picking such a cool dude to marry. As for Mandy herself, she is an art student, soon to graduate and become a mother -- though not in that order! She works free-lance, sometimes subbing for art teachers. She has illustrated at least one children's book that I know of. Our favourite mutual topics of conversation are heavily spiritual, not so much light party material.

With Johnny keeping the conversation spilling along, the pizza was soon done and we set to eating it while the rice pies baked. At this point, my neighbour and second cousin Derrick arrived.

I first got to know Derrick -- I'll call him Deek -- when we were in the army together. Unlike most of my friends, who are of the Laestadian Lutheran faith, Deek espouses a materialistically based, scientific worldview. Fortunately, all of my friends, including him, are more or less good-natured, tolerant and open-minded, so I didn't have any qualms about having him in the same room with several Christians. In fact, it only made the conversation instantly more interesting.

The rest of the guests came later, in dribs and drabs. Naomi dribbed, Sue-Ann drabbed. I met them through my ex-girlfriend -- Johnny as well, by coincidence, before he ever set eyes on Mandy. Small world. Naomi teaches music, and Sue-Ann. . . uh. . . dang, I forget. Something unusual and unexpected, anyway. Funny, these lapses of memory.

Only one person whom I invited couldn't make it: another second cousin of mine, Vance. I'll have to tell you about him some other time.

But wow, five out of six people. I was expecting maybe three to show up. Not bad.

Oh, gosh, there's so much to tell if I start in on what-all we talked about. -- Nahh, I won't bore you guys with that. But I gotta say, the level, intensity, and degree of interestingness of the conversation did not disappoint at all.

Oh, and did I mention there was more food? Pear ice cream and fresh blueberry soup for dessert. With Rooibos red tea. Mmm.

My iPod stereo with pseudo-Apple design was a hit. I docked my iPod Video on and put it on Shuffle. Good music. Mm-hmm. Oh, and Jotsio mistook my comp for a Mac, because of the Apple sticker covering the Fujitsu Siemens logo.

Oh, and of all my stuff, you know what was the biggest hit?

The LEGO.

:blush:

I was not prepared for such a positive reaction. My friends thought my MOCs were pretty cool! Well, Deek was familiar with them from before, and while he respects my hobby, he admits he doesn't understand the attraction, but gosh: Jotsio and Naomi and Sue-Ann were asking me all kinds of questions about my building. The girls posed some of my humanoid figures on the floor, and took pictures. They all thought that it would be awesome to animate my MOCs with stop-motion. ( Stop-motion! I have a hard enough time getting a gallery put together.)

So yeah, total surprise success with the housewarming party. The time went by so fast, it was quarter to two in the morning before anyone thought of leaving.

Next time will be even better. Promise.

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P.S. The choir performance today at the 50-year anniversary of the Pateniemi church went perfectly. No sweat. OK, I didn't sing perfectly, and I was somewhat nervous, but we did good -- really good. The director loved us. We even set a new choir record for the longest program yet. Woo-hoo!

All three of the buttons on my suit jacket came off, though.