If 6 was 9

Whenever we throw a dinner party, we always try to keep Amy Sedaris' list of Dinner Guest Combinations to Avoid in mind:
1. Astrologer and Astronomer
2. Fraternity brother and anyone else
3. Psychologist and Psychiatrist
4. The newly divorced couple
5. Director and Out-of-Work Actor
5. A girl, her boyfriend and his secret girlfriend

Last night, dinner for 6 became dinner for 8 became dinner for 9. Four invites and 3 wild cards equaled the perfect mix. Fred and I have a theory about dinner parties that we refer to as "The Wild Card Rule." In order to throw a good one, you need a Wild Card....an unexpected guest, a new friend, an old friend, a 3 year old, someone's mom....just to mix things up a bit, add a little intrigue. Last night, we had 3.

But first, the reason for the season. Since their engagement in November, we've been wanting to throw down in honor of Lisa and Cesar before they tie the knot this June.



And to celebrate Chris and Brea, who successfully navigated the Auslanderbehorde for the past year and finally secured a long-term residency permit for Chris to stay in Germany.



Enter Vinnie.

Vinnie is back in town to dance a solo in an opera at the theater. Newly married and living in Koln, it was her first time back in her old apartment - our apartment - since she left Kassel last June. The cats treated her like she owned the place.

Thusnelda drove up from Wuppertal to visit Lisa and Cesar, and came along.

Turns out, the dinner wouldn't have even happened without Thusnelda. Our table, which was Vinnie's table, used to be Thusnelda's table back when she was a student at Folkwang in Essen.

I loved listening to her and Vinnie chime in as Lisa and Cesar told the story of how they fell in love. All four of them were dancing in a piece together. The task: make 10 ways of holding a person, Lisa and Cesar are coupled up. Next thing you know, they're having their first kiss in front of a light that Thusnelda said "saw so many kisses..." and Vinnie's reluctantly telling the choreographer why Lisa isn't in rehearsal: she's costume shopping. And why Cesar isn't: he's with her.

We pulled the table up to the couch


And Fred served up a Senagalese chicken stew.


When we were having coffee, Wild Card #3 rolled in. Ben, direct from the Therma, looking all exfoliated.


For the next few hours we listened to music. (The Ghetto Ark Serious Times mix killed the crowd by the way Knox)

A little dancing


Lots of wine...

My "artistic" camera settings...

And a long and funny conversationa about "how we fight." For those of you who can't see in the dark... in the video below, first Lisa describes Cesar hiding under his pillow to avoid a fight, then Vinnie describes how Josef pretends to read a book to avoid a fight. Chris brings it home by giving us the secret to getting under Brea's skin.