deck parties

i’m at a deck party this past weekend down in south boston. lots of people. lots of hooch. if you don’t know what hooch is then it should stay that way, trust me. you’ll live longer if i don’t tell you.

so we’re drinking the hooch like its going to be gone any second. we’re all getting pretty sloshed and starting to know it. the night gets colder and we just get warmer from the hooch. the jug band rocks on and forgets to take a break.

a few minutes after who knows when this couple walks in. i know this couple, but not that great. what i mean is that i see this couple at every party i go to, including parties at my house. so maybe i’ve been at like 10 parties where this couple has been in attendance. this couple is a pretty cool couple, i mean, from what i can tell. what what i can tell they’re pretty funny and just have a good time together like all the time. from what i can tell.

so have you ever been in a situation where you forgot to introduce yourself or perhaps were forgotten when introductions went around? that’s what happened with this couple. i forgot to introduce myself. that or someone forgot to introduce me. but it was so long ago that i can’t remember, and i doubt they can either. so every party that we see each other at goes kind of like this when they get near me:

them: “oh hi katie! its so good to see you, oh my god!” – while giving big hugs

me, i just take a big drink of the hooch and kind of turn the other way or just stand there smiling and watching the conversation.

them: “oh my look there’s dan, lets go say hi to dan.”

i now just tend to think in my head about how this ever came to be and can’t we just find a way around this already.

later on in the night (as always) i find myself in a position where we’re all of a sudden standing next to each other with nobody else around. also, the music just stopped. its quiet and all you can hear are other people talking and having a good time just a few steps away. always this happens. every fucking party. so we just stand there drinking way more hooch than we should be in any given minute, praying that someone will wander by and save us.

i mean really? how much more awkward could this be? and what the frig do we do to fix it? we’re way past the “by the way we’ve never really met.” and now its just too weird to try and start a conversation and go from there, i mean we both know what’s going on here. what’s even more annoying is that all my other good friends at the party know these people and get along just great. obviously they were introduced properly like 10 parties ago.

i think my best bet is that i stand next to one of my friends and they talk to this couple with me trying to throw something into the conversation once in a while. lord help me if my friend actually just gets up and leaves me there with them. perhaps i should tell my friends about this plan, let them acclimate me to this couple bit by bit at each new party. yeah, that might work. wish me luck.