What A Great Party. What A Great Life.

Now that I think about it, the 75th Book Party took approximately as much energy as all 75 books put together. You sit down, you turn on the computer, you write a book. Nice and easy. But parties, parties are tough. But wonderful.

Before I show you all the pictures, I want to say in the middle of the Nightmare That Was Saturday (which made the great whitefish crisis of 2008 look like the happiness parade), I finished reading White Cargo. What a fascinating book. Remember my old favorite fact, that if an indentured woman servant got pregnant, she had two years added to her time of servitude, even if her master was the father? Well, it turns out if an indentured servant man fathered a child, he had three years added to his term of servitude.

I apologize to all who suffered from indenture, but I find that kind of funny. I keep picturing all those indentured guys singing "Billie Jean."

Back to the party. I'll spare all of us a recap of the Nightmare That Was Saturday, and tell you instead that I couldn't possibly have managed without the incredible help of Marci, her husband Bill, and my friend Bonnie. They set things up for me and then did the cleaning afterwards. I must have been doing something while they did all the work, but, fortunately for me, I have amnesia.

I know thirty people came to the party (myself included) because I made thirty party favor bags and got to keep the last one. The bags included M and Ms that said 75 Books and June 1, 2008, so I'm never going to eat mine. I hope M and Ms don't get moldy.

My friend Cynthia made a notebook for people to inscribe and people wrote such nice things in it. Oh, and my sister-in-law Esther made lattes for people, which were a major high point. Also there was enough food to feed five armies, and my friend Christy who told me I'd need four dozen bagels is personally responsible for my brand new 15 Bagels A Day Diet. I figure any food that has a hole in the middle can't possibly have calories.

Onto the pictures. It's amazing how unflattering the pictures are, which is why I'm so glad I didn't take any of myself. But one of the things people kept saying at the party was how glad they were to be able to put faces to names (it's been a while since I had a party). The same may be true for you.

On the right is Carol Pierpoint and Marci Hanners to whom Life As We Knew It is dedicated. They take full credit for its success. Marci is really a lot prettier than that picture would indicate, and Carol's smile looks a tad insincere.

Right below is Janet Carlson, inscribing in the notebook. The dead and the gone is dedicated to her. In the right hand corner is Bonnie. She's a town judge and has run a marathon.

Below is the Pfeffer family, my sister-in-law Esther, my mother (who sat in the same little chair for the entire party, and let people come to her, like a queen) and my brother Alan. It's not a bad picture of Alan, but my camera does no justice to Esther.

Carrying the purple plant is Todd Strasser. My camera is as cruel to guys as to women.

Marci and Carol gave me a window box for my patio. Carol selected the flowers and did the planting.

My friend Linda did the embroidery. This is not a gift you can find just anywhere.

And my friend Tom attended my talk at Middletown Thrall Library, where I explained the movie Meteor got me thinking about what it would be like for a teenager to live through a worldwide catastrophe. The next day he found a video of Meteor and saved it for the party. The little flowers with the bow are from my goddaughter, Allison, who couldn't get to the party.The big vase of flowers is from Randy, a librarian, who told another guest that LAWKI was "huge."

I told you it was a great party!