Fancy Reception

Last night the three of us headed to downtown DC for a fancy reception for Kevin's A-100 class. We knew to dress up and be on our best behavior. I was a bit late after tackling Penny, wrestling her tights onto her, and forcing some Tylenol down her squirming gullet (she's teething).

It was a really fun party, getting to meet and chat with several of Kevin's classmates. The last time I saw most of them was at Flag Day, where everyone was a little giddy, dumb-struck, or otherwise not their usual selves after hearing where they'd be going for the next two years. But last night, it had all soaked in, and everyone had something fascinating to talk about.

I was excited to go, partially of course to schmooze and eat free food, but mostly to chat with Kevin's classmates and their spouses. I've heard this rumor that I'm not the only one in the class-- or in our apartment complex for that matter-- who stays at home with a small child and could use some socializing. So I was really looking forward to chatting with some of said spouses.

Apparently, though, all those spouses had gotten the memo that the party was going to be a little more like this:
And a little less like this:
Ah yes, I missed that memo.

Penny may or may not have been the youngest person in the room by about 25 years. But she had great social skills, considering. As long as either Kevin or I was holding her, she was quiet and good and enjoyed the general spectacle.

The reception was put on by a group of (mostly) retired diplomats. It was really cool to talk to some of them and hear their experiences, the highlights of decades of American-foreign relations, and also get some thoughts and advice as we start on the same trek.

Penny made some friends. We talked to one of Kevin's classmates, a woman going to Poland for the next couple years. She is very cool and gave me the idea of tracking the weather in my upcoming post. I did so, and today's temperature ranges from 6 to 16 and then back to 12. That has to be Celsius, doesn't it?!

Penny socialized by grabbing some olives from this woman's plates. Then putting them back. Penny's mouth was already full of about 10 already-chewed olives, and she realized she couldn't fit any more in. Apparently at that same moment, Penny also realized that she had no plans for actually eating those olives. She opened her mouth and began spitting out the black goo. As cute as this is when your own child does this (?), if I were standing there watching someone else's child do this, I would have stepped back and let the floor do its job. But Kevin's amazingly cool and personable classmate reached out and let Penny spit onto her hand. And also her plate. And she also got us some napkins so Penny could finish spitting out every last bit of those chewed olives.

Now, in my defense, I would almost always, in every situation, be the one to reach out and catch my baby's disgusting projectiles. But I was holding a baby on one arm and a small hors d'oeuvres plate in the other. And in hindsight, it would have been best to have Penny spit onto my plate. But I'd just gotten my food, and those curry chicken kabobs were to die for!

So maybe that's just one of the reasons that many people know not to invite children to events like this.

I did get to talk to a classmate of Kevin's whose wife lives in our apartment, has a baby Penny's age, and has another one coming next summer. We should become friends. In talking to him, I found out the mystery of today's power outage, and it didn't have much to do with the storm. As I mentioned, the power flickered once, and then a minute later it flickered and stayed off. My future friend lives on the 1st floor, and outside her window, she saw a fireball shoot 10 feet into the air. Cue flicker. Then another one shot into the air, and the power was off for good. Apparently there was an underground gas leak or something that exploded and shot the manhole flying into the air and caused a power outage.

We did eventually regain power. At 5:30 this morning.