Deck Crawl 2012

Hello Friends.

It was a lovely weekend for a deck crawl

around the hood.

This was our second year hosting.

See Deck Crawl 2011 for details.

I said it last year and I will say it again...

this is the easiest way to host 50 people,

they are in and out in 45 minutes.

This year we served German Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest beer and a slice of lemon for drinks.

And warm cinnamon

and salty pretzel bites for eats.

Along with a Chicago mix of

sweet and salty popcorn.

I have yet to get a good picture of it,

so I will share a really bad picture.

 

Here is a better picture, I stole straight from Facebook, of the crew, on their way to my house.

(D and I had left to prep).

We had an overnight babysitter, Jennifer as a spontaneous visitor and entirely too much fun for way too long.

My favorite part about this year was realizing these neighbors becoming more than friendly acquaintances.

They are becoming my real friends.

I know this because, some of them do not walk to the back yard upon arrival, they walk right through the front door

(no need to ring the doorbell or wait for an invite)

These friends, show others where my powder room is and then head upstairs or downstairs to another bathroom for themselves.

And help themselves to whatever they need.

And stash their belongings in my purse.

The ones, I am just getting to know, look in my windows and admit they want to see my house, and I feel totally comfortable saying

"go in! snoop around!"

And I mean it.

Because I am comfortable here now.

And comfortable letting others get to know me.

And quickly learn that I am not perfect, but perhaps that will be exactly

 the thing to connect us.

Strangers, introduce themselves and thank me for opening up my yard for them.

You know how I love feedback,

(except about me and a video shoot)

so this was all so lovely to me.

I  love my house/yard/deck

all lit up with lights and loud with laughter and music and beer bottles hitting the recyclables.

I love knowing that I have made some

good true friends here.

I no longer feel like we are the previous owners' sorry replacement.

I feel like, D and I,

 are quite wonderful in our own ways.

And our neighbors have started to notice,

or maybe they already did

and I am started to accept it.

It was nice to see that on our second year of hosting this event,

friends not from the hood, but on the guest list already felt familiar with us and our home.

They remembered last year and

looked forward to our house.

That is the kind of awesome that

 makes our house a home.

Now, if you don't mind I am going to go play Phil Phillips and treasure my house

in its perfectly messy state of affairs,

leftover from the easy party and good timin' that I am still recovering from.