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Letter from Boston

Christmas Party

By MASAKO YAMADA


クリスマスパーティー

日ごろ一緒に過ごす時間のない雅子さんとルームメート。お互いの友達をみんな招待してパーティーを開くことに決めました。ツリーを飾ったり、料理を用意したり、準備もすっかり整って…。

For a few months now, my roommates and I have been saying, "We've got to throw a party so we can all meet each others' friends." Since our day-to-day lives are so different, we usually don't get to see much of each other, much less get a good picture of each others' social circles, but we all have interesting friends, and they reflect the kind of people that we ourselves are.

About a month ago, we set a date for our party: Friday the 13th. Then all of us started thinking about how we could make it a good party. We bought a huge, fresh Christmas tree and decorated it with red ribbons, white lights, and homemade snow. We hung red stockings, with our names written in gold glitter, on the mantelpiece of our fireplace. We put a sprig of plastic mistletoe over one of the doorways, and we sent out personalized invitations to our friends.

In the last few days before the party we visited the supermarket and the liquor store many times in order to stock the buffet table and wet bar. I made big pans full of homemade macaroni casserole, shepherd's pie, smoked clam dip, and ginger chicken wings. I also made some spiked lemonade. My roommates made a variety of other nibbles.

Becca's friend's friend offered to DJ at the party for no charge, so the furniture was moved and the equipment was set up in the living room. We were ready to party!

We had asked all our guests to dress nicely, so many of the women came in fancy dresses, and many of the men wore ties. I wore a long, red dress and a Santa Claus hat. The only people who didn't seem to understand the dress code were the graduate students my friends! Many of them trekked into our apartment wearing jeans. The mood was festive nonetheless.

The living room was our "dance floor," the kitchen was the hub for people who wanted to eat and mingle, and the balcony was filled with people who wanted either to smoke or (paradoxically) to get a breath of fresh, cold air. The traffic to and from each of these places flowed smoothly and continuously.

The party was still going strong at 2:30 a.m. when I decided to take off my high heels and change into some more comfortable shoes. My classmate Alexei was looking at the books in my room, so while I was changing my shoes, we chatted about some of my favorite writers.

I heard the music stop while I was in my room, so I figured that the DJ was calling it a night. When I went back into the hallway, however, I saw a couple of cops herding the guests out the door! Apparently, some neighbors had called the police, and they were disbanding our party and forcing everyone to go home.

We were startled by their lack of protocol. Yes, we were noisy, but we weren't doing anything illegal. They could've just told us to keep it down. One of my roommates tapped a cop on the shoulder and asked her what we were being charged for, but she just barked, "Touch me again, and I'll have you arrested for assaulting a police officer!" Our guests just snickered. There was actually a paddy wagon parked in front of the apartment to take away anyone making trouble. They were even calling in reinforcements. We all wondered out loud whether the Boston City Police didn't have more important issues to tend to.

There were exceptions to the "Must Leave" rule, though: my friend Mete quickly pointed to me and said, "She's my girlfriend and I'm staying with her for the night." Then he pointed to Matt and said, "Please don't ask about our sexual relationship." Both of them were allowed to stay. More snickers followed.

All of the guests who had likewise found an excuse to stay piled into Lynne's room, where we sipped our drinks, bounced on her bed and continued to have a gay ol' time.

At around 3:30 one of our upstairs neighbors came down to complain about the noise. It was obvious, though, that he actually wanted to be a part of the fun. His roommates were forcing him to do this unpleasant errand. We invited him in for a beer and listened to him complain. He ended up staying until 5:00 a.m. which is when we finally turned the lights out....

The Christmas Party was over. It was a good party.


Shukan ST: Dec. 27, 1996

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