Reverb10: Party

December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)

Being saddled with a child has left me sadly removed from much in the way of social gatherings involving adults sans toddlers but that hasn't stopped me from having fun. We always have our annual extended weekend retreat to my friend's cabin at a mostly private southern Minnesota lake. On the outside it doesn't sound like it would be a ton of fun because of the setting but I fail to remember a time in my ten or so visits that has been lacking of good times.

This year's event saw that sad but typical once a year gathering of old friends who refuse to stifle their youthfulness despite all having adult obligations. We played rodeo golf for what seemed like hours without end. We played round after round of cornhole. We played like little kids off the end of the dock as, like the inmature idiots we are, we scooped up and threw huge wads of lake weeds at each other and even adorned some of the group with disgusting and unsuspected lake weed wigs.

Each evening was capped off with a bonfire and/or a rather intense round or two of poker. The faces have aged but the ties remain strong even as we scatter across the state and change but that once a year gathering (and other non-annual events like it) keep us grounded and remind each and every one of us where we came from. For most of us, it's as close to a second family as we will ever get.