A Host At Any Party

Yesterday my friend Tori, whom I haven't seen in over a year and a half, and her boyfriend came by. I happened to catch her at home in San Jose when I was up north last week and we made plans to get together here in LA (her family lives down here). So after the two of them got done with the Getty Center they came here, oohed and aahed over our house, and got comfy so we could talk for a bit.

I know Tori from De Anza College, where we met in filmmaking classes. She starred in my magnum opus, the class that taught me that dialogue that sounds good on the page will just suck onscreen. (The movie wasn't that great, but it taught me tons.) Tori is very beautiful, and for those of you out there who've met her, her hair is long now. She resembles my USC classmate Carolann very much--I would love to cast the two of them as sisters.

Tori will graduate from college (after 6 years and several colleges) and because she's been doing so much work with directing while at San Jose State she wants to direct for a living. When she says, "What I really want to do is direct," she means it. After graduating, she and her boyfriend will move down here, which I am looking forward to.

After seeing Tori we went over to Carole's cousin's Claire's house in Burbank for "Yidfest '97"--that Claire's name, not mine. Yidfest is a party celebrating, uh, one of the nights of Hanukah. I don't know which one it was.

There were about 3 million people at this party, many of whom recognized me from a previous party at Claire's--they're all cousins of Carole's too. Of course, I couldn't remember anyone's name and I'm not exactly Ms. Gregarious at parties filled with people who all know one another, even if some of them appear to know me. I spent most of the the evening talking to Darin's father Steve.

The only time that I am incredibly gregarious with strangers is when I have drunk one or two glasses of wine. Then I am outgoing and witty and can speak with ease to just about anyone. The key to talking to strangers, of course, is to ask about them. Most people love to talk about themselves--I happen to be an exception to that. (No, really.)

I even once had a therapist suggest that I have a glass of wine before I go out to a strange place. Not all the time of course (she didn't want to suggest I become dependent on the stuff), but once in a while, to loosen me up. I am just about the most uptight person you will ever meet.

I never did. I managed to meet Darin anyhow.

The wackiest thing I ever did was when I was at Apple and Amytal and I got drunk at a company party. We went around introducing ourselves to the security men (one looked like Steve Jobs), to company executives who had no idea who we were, and entering conversations with total strangers. None of it bothered me at the time. We called ourselves "The Hosts At Any Party They Attend." We lived up to this by serving the drinks and introducing people we didn't know to other people we didn't know. It was a lot of fun.

Today we went to Santa Monica to have brunch with Carole's cousins Sally, Bobby, and Clancy. (I told you she has a lot of cousins--none of these people were at Yidfest.) We went to Selma's apartment in Santa Monica to chat for a while afterwards. Bobby and Clancy told us how much they loved our house, which Carole had showed them while Darin and I were in Northern California.

Tonight Carole made dinner for the Russian Army, but only the Boys--errr, Guys--came for dinner. Carole made matzoh ball soup and beef mushroom barley soup, both in vast quantities. (Our refrigerator is full--want to come over for some dinner?) After dinner we had Mrs. Smith's Peach Pie with Breyer's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, which is about the tastiest combination you can imagine.

I'm partied out at this point. No more visitors! Well, for a day or two, at any rate.