A warm and inviting host -- he directs us to take our shoes off at the door, warm our toes by the roaring fire. Sarah and I both discover that we're wearing socks with holes in them.
A guy with big teeth and a tie-dyed shirt stumbles in from a cloud of smoke on the porch; he greets us warmly, and later I talk to him about playing the corner at the Middle East.
Pretzel's German friend is wearing a cowboy hat within 5 minutes of arriving.
A girl brews tea on the stove while a med student introduces herself to us. She flew in from Chicago for the occasion.
We get fortune cookies at midnight. Mine says, "You will win success in whatever calling you adopt." My cookie actually had two fortunes, so I gave the other one away.
A yellow lab named Thor eats out of the trash can and sniffs the ladies' crotches.
At 4 am I find myself shooting the shit about politics with a guy in glasses who had read the same stories I had in the New Yorker, and another guy wearing a mechanic's shirt. Meanwhile, my friend is hooking up with his brother. We eat Chex mix.
