25th Anniversary Party

          The Oakland Catholic Worker was founded in 1986, meaning that this year is our 25^th anniversary. The party commemorating the event was held yesterday at our house. There was a meal, a mass, dancing, several presentations, and a lot of people just getting together and catching up.

          Saturday was spent preparing for the event. In the morning, a bunch of women showed up and made about 150 Salvadoran tamales (which are different from the Mexican and Guatemalan kind, btw). DP and some members of our board or directors (or something) hung a big tarp over the back porch and nailed up some other tarps to block distractions from either end of the house. Once everyone left, around 4, we hung up some papel picado (colored tissue paper cut into cool designs), brought up all the chairs and tables from the basement, and made sure things were ready for Sunday.  DP did a lot of painting, which has been his "thing" the last couple of weeks.  The whole house smells of paint.

          Sunday was quite the marathon. We started cooking chicken at 10, which as it turned out, wasn't soon enough. We had a LOT of chicken. So we outsourced some of the pans to members of the community. We also served the tamales, salad, beans and rice (of course!), and egg rolls (not specifically Hispanic, but whatever). We crammed a lot of people into the house. It was full of tables, chairs, food, and lots and lots of people. So many people. And not to blatantly stereotype, but Hispanics are pretty loud, so it was pretty overwhelming. The party was supposed to start at 1, which it more or less did. It was supposed to end at 4, which to me, means that everyone files out pretty much at 4. Well, the mass that started at 3 didn't end until almost 5, and then everyone stayed around until 6 or so. By 8, the three of us that lived in the house had it whipped back into pre-fiesta shape. Then we celebrated by watching “Good Will Hunting,” which as it turned out was a really boring movie, compounded by the poor sound quality on our TV.

          So now it's over. My mother always says “if you want your house to feel huge, invite a bunch of people over for awhile, and then when they leave, it will seem really big.” That's totally true. I was in the house by myself for most of the day today and it was great. I sort of felt like a little marble just rattling around bouncing off the walls, but once in awhile, that's ok.

          It was also super hot yesterday and today. I think about 80, so that means that I've successfully acclimated to the weather here, because 80 is not actually that hot. Yuck. Now I'm one of THOSE people... next thing you know, I'll be whining because it's 50 degrees out!