'Tis the Season

[+ Charlie]

We went to three holiday parties over the weekend.

We live in a 55+ adult community. A neighbor who is one of the HOA board members and his wife invited a large number of residents to an open house on Saturday. It was a catered affair with lots of excellent food and drink, and there was heavy traffic back and forth between their big house and a large yard designed for entertaining. Given the well-known demographics of our community, the guests were about half gay, half straight. We interacted with many neighbors we knew, and met many whom we didn't previously know, and had a good time.

Later in the evening we went to a party hosted by a gay couple in their 60s. There were about twenty guests, all concentrated in the main room of the house, standing and sitting around drinking, eating and chatting.  We didn't know anyone except the host couple; all of the other guests were older gay men, attired in the assigned theme of the party: Christmas sweaters. It all felt so familiar--I thought I was back in the 1970s again!

On Sunday afternoon we went to another open house, this time hosted by one of my regular tennis partners, a straight, single woman a quarter century younger than I am. She lives in another town, in a small house on a golf course; since it was a sunny and mild day, much of the activity took place on a large patio facing the course. Most of the other guests were at least a generation younger than we are, and their sexual orientation was hard to determine. I spoke with several men and women who turned out to be married, but present without their spouses or partners. Aside from a few tennis players I knew, there were few guests with whom we had much in common, because they were all currently employed--we have been retired for decades-- in interesting careers in the arts, tech, and services. Nevertheless, the conversations were stimulating, because they were, like our hostess, bright and friendly people. We ended up staying longer than we had intended.

When I received the invitations, I pondered the possibility that the event might turn into a super-spreader, but despite my usual caution, I accepted each of them. After two years of mostly self-imposed social isolation, I was ready to re-engage. I understand "COVID fatigue": most human beings yearn for social mingling with other human beings, despite the risks, and I am human. I hope I won't have reason to regret my decision, but for now I feel newly energized by the experience.

Whatever decisions you make, I hope you have a happy holiday season.

[Luv2play]

Obviously your risk threshold is a lot higher than mine. Here I am debating with myself whether I will attend a very small Christmas day dinner at my brother's which would see me as the only guest. So his spouse as the only other attendee.

They live in a community like yours with mostly retired neighbors. But they interact with them daily, unlike myself who lives in a small town and have very limited interactions these days except on Zoom to conduct board business of groups I belong to or very small working settings with everyone wearing masks and being fully vaxed.

As an aside, I went to the computer repair shop today and there were three elderly customers ahead of me, each with their masks slung under their chins. I waited outside the shop until they left and on leaving, each pulled up their masks over their noses. What gives with these people!

[KrisParr]

My favorite nephew called over the weekend to invite me to his place where about 20+ assorted relatives will soon gather for a festive bash. As he rattled off the names of the invited, he casually mentioned some of them were not vaxxed just in case that made a difference. Fuck. Sure as hell does make a difference. I lied and said I wasn’t sure of my plans (true) and left it at that. It’s science, people.

[+ poolboy48220]

I've been invited to an old friend's family Christmas Eve, and he was 100% understanding about my hesitancy about a gathering with 15-18 adults and a handful of kids, even though he's sure they're all vaccinated.  

[+ Pensant]

I had a dinner party last week for 4 younger friends and neighbors. On Saturday I and a neighbor took our friend, who’s moving away, and her brother out to dinner at a hip restaurant in the neighborhood. I enjoy the social life, but do worry about the new omicron variant, although the case loads where I live are quite low. I think I’ll stay in New Years Eve.

[+ Tygerscent]

On 12/20/2021 at 9:41 AM, Luv2play said:

Obviously your risk threshold is a lot higher than mine. Here I am debating with myself whether I will attend a very small Christmas day dinner at my brother's which would see me as the only guest. So his spouse as the only other attendee.

They live in a community like yours with mostly retired neighbors. But they interact with them daily, unlike myself who lives in a small town and have very limited interactions these days except on Zoom to conduct board business of groups I belong to or very small working settings with everyone wearing masks and being fully vaxed.

As an aside, I went to the computer repair shop today and there were three elderly customers ahead of me, each with their masks slung under their chins. I waited outside the shop until they left and on leaving, each pulled up their masks over their noses. What gives with these people!

I saw tons of this at the airport as well~