northside newsstand festivus celebration (holiday party #20)

Northside Newsstand is my coffeehouse, lunch counter, magazine shop, gossip stop and neighborhood touchstone. The coffeehouse I used to manage (CATH Inc) was across the street. The corner has lots of other great businesses - Sam's Gyro's, Army Navy Surplus Store, Moe and Johnny's Bar, The Piano Merchant, Hit City Recording, Yat's and the Jazz Kitchen.

The partners in the Newsstand take advantage of Festivus Day to throw their annual holiday bash at the Jazz Kitchen. There is always great mix of neighborhood people and I have a blast. I also love seeing people in their party clothes.

The weather was very cold and windy so I bundled up for the walk down. It was great to see all of the Christmas lights along the way. I was a little nervous - I'd gotten up enough courage to call a boy and invited him to join me. He said he'd love to, which meant that I immediately got all blotchy and queasy. Walking gave me a chance to calm down, or a least to be able to blame my pink face on the weather.

I'm not a good judge of crowds but I'm guessing there were hundreds of people there. There was a great spread of food, but I didn't eat much. I'm allergic to shellfish and if I cannot see what I'm eating or identify it for sure I don't eat it. I don't think that keeling over in the middle of the party would impress a maybe-date. Luckily I am not allergic to whiskey.

The decor of the Newsstand focuses on globes and maps. The window is filled with globes and each table has map under glass and a globe. There was a ceramic gnome tucked among the globes in the window. I noticed at some point this year the gnome was gone, but I didn't ever ask anyone what happened to it. This fall photographs of the gnome in a hospital bed appeared at the newsstand, saying that he would be returned soon. Who sent them was a mystery.
Last week a friend admitted to me that her daughter had broken the gnome. She panicked, put the broken gnome in the diaper bag and fled. She snapped the photographs and plotted how she could sneak the gnome back to the window. She got the idea to dress up as a gnome to return the original gnome at the Festivus party.

As you know, I love a theme - and tend to take things overboard. I found a great stuffed recordable gnome at Posh Petals. Jamie's boyfriend recorded a "see you later" message on the gnome and left at the Jazz Kitchen before the party. Jamie came dressed as the gnome and almost pulled the secret off - the gift bag she returned the ceramic gnome had a gift tag attached that said "to Jamie."

DJ Rusty provided the music for the evening.

I wish I could/felt comfortable dancing because the dance floor was full of folks.

There was also a set from the musician turned comedian that I dated when I was 21. So, there I am sitting next to Band Practice Boy and feeling uncomfortable while Mr. Rockabilly Comic is doing his thing about um, sex. BPB leaned over and asked if I knew the comedian - "errr, yeah, I met him years ago...hey, can I buy you a whiskey?"

The rest of the evening was spent laughing and chatting with BPB and friends.

I ran in to a guy who plays in the band I went to see Friday night- I didn't write about Friday, because it didn't really fit in to the holiday celebration theme, but I was happy to be able to ask him some band history for my Gazette column.