More Super than the Super Bowl???

So, I had a Superbowl party last night, and it was FANTASTIC!

I love hosting/throwing parties at my house...and I must say that I put on some pretty good parties, if I do say so myself. 8)

I'll get to my point in a little bit, but let me go ahead and set the scene here:

A month ago, my buddy Aman (the one who decided 2010 is my year) called me and said, "Hey Stoner, are you planning on throwing a Superbowl party?!?" I thought about it for a second, remembered how much fun my SB party was last year and replied, "Uhh, heck yeah, man!"

As of yesterday, 14 people had RSVP'd to my party, which is plenty to have a great party. For those of you who don't live in Nashville, RSVPs for Nashvillians are meaningless. Case in point...from six pm till ten pm last night, there were between 40 & 50 people in my house...err there were that many people in my living room and kitchen all night, and somehow it worked.

It didn't take me long to realize Aman's true intentions to have me host the Superbowl party...he wanted to throw a good party, and my house is kind of a party house. Let's get something straight: I absolutely LOVE IT when my house gets volunteered as a party-hosting site!!!

Aman showed up with two marvelous party platters from Jimmy John's. He also set up a beer taste test with voting sheets and all. My buddy Hunter made three pots of chili - two pots with different spice levels and one pot of vegetarian chili. These guys and my friend Julie showed up early to help set up...Hunter even helped wipe-down my kitchen and bathroom while I hustled to make final preparations. I'd spent most of the day alleviating the disarray of my bachelor pad...no small task. I spent much of Saturday building a mount to hang my projector from the ceiling in my kitchen so we could watch the "big game" in BIG. The kitchen is always where people congregate and chat anyway. For the die-hard fans, the TV in the living room was accompanied by surround-sound. For those who didn't really care, I set up a few Atari games in my bedroom.

As kickoff came and went, people began showing up in droves, and they all brought what we'd asked them to bring. I quickly ran out of counter and table space for all the food, and I'm pretty sure my house was in some sort of fire code violation.

I ask you: Are there any better times in life than being in a house surrounded by good friends while enjoying the over-abundance of food and drink at your disposal???

I'm going to brag about my great friends now a bit. As the game concluded and the night wound down, people began cleaning up my house for me. I watched as my friend Jen washed my dishes for me. Not only was the trash properly disposed of, the recyclable trash was separated out for me. Somewhere during the night, somebody emptied my regular trash can. My friend Christy made a heroic, emergency run to the store in the middle of the game as we had a ton of chili, but no bowls to put it in. This happens at my parties almost every time. My friends are awesome!

So my point: My favorite part about parties is that it's a great excuse for me to be surrounded by the wonderful people I have the privilege and pleasure of calling my friends. I also get to watch worlds collide as these individuals intermingle and find common ground in the crucible that my house becomes. If you take a moment to soak in a situation like that, it can be pretty overwhelming. Hardly all of my Nashville friends were in my house last night, and yet in that small collection of personalities, I had in my house last night more value than any bank, any vault, any treasure on earth.

Here's to a great night! Here's to my friends! Here's to the Saints' first Superbowl win! Umm...the Saints won, right?!?