So many events…so little time that it happened in…I’ll try to be as brief as possible, but good Gaud!…So much happened.

It started off with a Birthday Party invitation from my friend Suzyn, who was throwing a Toga party with another friend Celena A. Diamond.  Determined to not make the drive by myself and to brind my favorite partying and travel companion, I informed Lee
that he was going to be joining me on this trip.  Since he had such a crappy
week beforehand, I knew that this would cheer my main man up.  The plan was
to leave after Lee left
work and I would pick up the clothes (For the Toga) and other materials (laurel
and grapes for women to feed to us) for our little adventure.  I did forget
to get Suzyn a b-day gift, so we stopped by Carl’s Corner, TX to
find an appropriate gift.  After much searching, I found what I was looking
for…”A Carl’s Corner Toothpick Holder.”, some beef jerky and a postcard
exaggerating the size of the crickets in Texas.  After picking up some alkeyhol
beverages, and more grapes we arrived. 

Before walking into the party, Lee and I donned our new attire and “ran on up in there!” to be the new lives of the party.  Little did these inhabitants of the Toga Party know that their night was going to change because we were now there.  I immediately joined up with a few of my friends, and maaaaadddd partying ensued!  They started to dish out birthday wishes and cut some apparently good cake soon after we got there.  It was great to see some of my old friends, Cathy, Suzyn, Cecilia (Sorry if I spelled your name wrong there.), and Celena
(the awesome hostess of the evening.)  As well as meet some new ones who’s
names I don’t remember…but faces I shall never forget:  (Thankfully to
my trusty digital camera)  “Cowboy boots Toga girl“, “Scary Neighbor Jimmy“, “Girl with Cool Shoes“, “Girl not wearing a Toga but kept with tradition by going Commando“, “Guy mixing Mardi Gras and Toga Party“, “Anthony…Alfred…Author…whatever.“, “Holly and Paula.” 

Here are some other really good misc pictures that I can’t afford to pass up:  “God Bless photography“, “Lee wanted me to destroy this picture…So here I am putting it on the Internet.”, “Dude! 
I just totally grabbed your ass!  I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean to do that…and
I did a really poor job.  If you want me to make it right, you can come back
and I’ll do it again.”, “Gaudess luv.”, “Umm…your toga’s too small.”, “The picture of the night.”, “It’s good to be Emperor“, “Uhh…umm…I’m sorry…were you just saying something?  I got distracted.”, “I see Toga People.”

After many, many hours, the party died down…That was at about 3-4AM. 
Then, little by little, people started to trickle off.  And then there were
10…More talk…more chatting…more people leaving.  And then there were
6.  At which point, Lee and I started mellowing the party out by telling
our tales of The Polyphonic Spree,
and how we think they are God’s Gift to music.  (They’re going to be in Austin
on Sept 14, so Austinites BE THERE!  Lee and I might be making a trip down
there again to experience this.)  This, plus a few of our other amusing stories
and Lee‘s huge lexicon kept the group entertained for quite a while.

Suzyn and “Anthony…Alfred…Aurthor…whatever”‘s left…And then there
were 4.  More music, more chat…And then it was 7AM.  “Uh guys…wanna go
get some breakfast?”  So, we then performed a sacred “Prayer of extinguishing
the Tikki Torches and thanking the Party Gauds who bestowed many fortunes
on us these past hours.”  and dragged our tired butts (At this point, it
was myself, Celena, Lee and Eric) to Kirby’s for some omlettes and more entertaining
stories.  Since I had to be back in Dallas for 2PM, I figured that we would
roll on outta Austin. 

By this time, I was VERY braindead and asked Lee to drive the way back. 
I kicked the chair back and took a short nap.  I was then woken up by the
sound of my tires screeching.  My immediate thought was, “It’s going to be
ok, we’ll stop in time.”  Then…WHAM!!!  Forward motion throws me into my
seatbelt and I am now looking (very closely, mind you) at the rear end of
a white Chevy.  Not good.  We pulled off into a bank parking lot and assessed
the damages.  Thankfully, NOONE was hurt.  The guy in the truck had no visible
damage, except for a bent plug, which they can probably take a wrench to. 
My car had a new cleft lip.  We
were able to bend my hood down a lot and even though there was some fluid
leakage, the car was drivable.  Thankfully, we were able to make it back
to Dallas w/o the car overheating, simutaneously combusting, or just plain
stopping.  The trip back was much more somber than the one coming, but towards
the end, we were back to our normal chipper selves…at
least as chipper one can be w/o sleeping for 36 hours, driving for 7 of them,
and partying for 10 of the rest.  That and we discussed our new line of shirts
involving our favorite catch quotes, “Qui est ton papa?!”, “And…WWHHHEEE!!!!”,
, “PIE!”, which we might get Celena to design.

Final analysis:  Party…GOOOOODD!!!   Driving…..BAADDD!!!  Still, a
great time was had by all and I’m looking forward to doing it again…just
this time in Dallas. 🙂

Here’s a link to the entire album of pictures I took at the party.