My dear friend Sarah has a holiday party each year and she goes all out. Â The thing is I usually miss it because I’ve already left to go down to Florida. Â So, a benefit of being here this month is that tonight I got to celebrate the holidays with Sarah and her eclectic group of friends.
When I say Sarah has a holiday party, it hardly does it justice. Â Sarah cooked a full buffet dinner, two entrees, a half dozen side dishes, and a half dozen desserts for a group of about 40 people and brought all of that food from her kitchen in Brooklyn, to an upstairs lounge in Midtown Manhattan. Â There were decorations, there was music (a finely curated mix of holiday tunes from her vast collection), there was dancing, there was conversation, there was laughter (there was also a gorgeous bartender, but I digress). Â Mostly, though, there was a kind of warmth that’s hard to describe.
Sarah is one of those people who is a natural at creating communities of people. Â Some of the most interesting, talented, and wonderful people I know in New York are because of Sarah. Â And they are all so different. Â And tonight was an opportunity to catch up with many of them who I hadn’t seen in ages. Â And it was an opportunity to relax and let go of day to day concerns and truly enjoy what it is this season is really about. Â Laughter and joy and dancing and chatting and reveling with friends old and new. Â That Sarah not only managed to put such a shindig together, but to look fabulous and be the life of the party (with the dancing and the dancing and the dancing), and never for a moment seem tired, is slightly awe inspiring.
It’s satisfying to end a weekend of wonderful, happy, good things and to be back in the thick of it at a time when I’ve been struggling to feel a part of the world again. Â It made tonight’s festivities just that much better. Â It’s yet another moment when I know that I’m very lucky and that despite my bristling against all that new agey, groovy, ethereal shit, believe that people come into your life for a reason (and it’s not just so they can throw great parties and you can eat your weight in brisket and chicken marsala).