please Sir

August 11, 2001

(After open-house report from Shockdoc and suz - who just happen to be the sweetest of houseguests!)

Travel is always difficult when one must compress a great distance into a weekend trip. And such was the case when Seville, and shadoe extended an invite to U/us to join them for T/their open house, and annual munch over the three day Canadian weekend. It is a long way from Bakersfield, California to Toronto, Ontario, and W/we may have arrived exhausted, but the excitement of getting to once again spend time with O/our wonderful friends, and finally get to see the city itself quickly chased away any doubts that the trip was worth every effort it took to make it.

Upon O/our arrival W/we found Seville, and His lovely shadoe looking over the displays of times, and gates trying to figure out where, and when, W/we might emerge from the enormous crowd gathered to greet incoming passengers. As soon as T/they looked up to see U/us there, T/their arms opened, and hugs abounded for each of U/us. This warm, friendly greeting proved to be the precursor to many a wonderful, and fascinating hour spent in T/their company.

It had been two years almost exactly, since shadoe had invited U/us to spend several days at her home in Welland, where she was at that time living. The birthday, and play party that was an important part of that time there, was only topped by the exceptionally good company, and the opportunity to meet so many face to face, whom had until that time been friends who's faces were simply jpegs, upon a monitor. And some, whom had never even been seen by U/us in that fashion. This weekend promised to allow U/us to also catch up on some of those connection, many of which had been nearly lost when POWWOW ceased services, and the chat room that had brought U/us all together, closed forever.

W/we took full advantage of that opportunity, and with Seville's generous help, was even able to find O/our way out to Kitchener, to see Domi, and Bodygaurd, whom could not travel, due to Domi's recent surgery. Here too, W/we were greeted by open arms, and hugs filled with happiness to see U/us. The time W/we spent there was filled with laughter, and chat, and even plans to get together sometime in the near future here in the States. Alas, there was much to do on that Saturday, and time for visiting soon came to an end. More hugs, and perhaps even a few teary eyes marked O/our trip back into TO.

W/we returned to find the open house in full swing, and soon found O/ourselves among a crowd of people whom were enjoying the beautiful home, and incredible food. Both created at the hands of O/our hosts. One thing that must be said of Seville, is that the Man can not just cook, but excels in it! He is gifted, and educated in so many things, and His culinary skills are a delight for both eye, and palate.

The laughter, and fun followed U/us all down the street, and round the corner that evening, as W/we all settled in for the munch, and rather took over a local eatery, and bar. It was a wonderfully fun affair, and ran into the later end of evening.

My bride, and Myself walked back with O/our hosts, and helped do a bit of cleanup, before settling in for the evening, and saying goodnight to the last of the guests. Seville and I shared some of My favorite scotch, and stayed up rather late that night, discussing many subjects of both whimsical nature, and deep emotional weight.

Sunday was a special day, where My bride and I were introduced to a local oddity known as Boulle. A rather twisted form of lawn bowling that, strangely enough, does not involve a lawn! It also was an opportunity to meet a number of O/our host's vanilla friends, and get a feel of a classic Toronto Sunday BBQ. It was a long day, and the exhaustion that was a part of it, also told the tale that it would soon be time for U/us to ready O/ourselves for the return trip to home.

The hour came early, and the chores where many, but all too soon, W/we were saying goodbye to Seville curbside at the departures area at the airport.

Leaving Toronto by air, and looking out the cabin window at the beauty of the city laid out before U/us, I realized the gift that had been given to U/us by O/our good friends. The gift of not only T/their incredible hospitality, but of a city, and a people W/we both deeply enjoyed, and could not have experienced without the trust T/they placed in U/us, when they extended an invitation, for a weekend together.

And the open house was a great success. As much fun as it was having Shock and suz here with us to enjoy it. Having the opportunity to visit them again was absolutely wonderful - it was almost as though they'd never left those few years ago - we just sort of picked up the conversations where we'd left off back then, and continued on enjoying each other. And gathered new memories such as the lovely green-eyed suz nodding enthusiastically about having a scene with Himself, then proceeding to snore up against Shock. That was very funny and gave us something great to tease her about!

i can't begin to describe how nice it was to be able to have a BUNCH of people in the house all at the same time and actually be able to move around still! i lost count of how many came through that day - probably about 25 or so - and it was everything i hoped it would be.

j and b (sounds like scotch heh!) helped out by serving drinks and preparing and replenishing the food trays. Himself and i dressed them in kimonos and they both looked great. (see side pics - not exactly as shown but you get the idea) i put j's hair up in a french twist, and tucked two chopsticks in from the top down, so that only part of them peeked out, and her blonde colouring looked perfect in the blue kimono i had. i think her dominant was more than a bit intrigued with the end results. At least it seemed to me He was anyway, since it looked like He was following her around a lot.

b was in a knee length haori, which is a half coat designed to be worn over a kimono. In this case however, we left out the kimono part and ended up with the lovely view of a tall man with nice legs and his chest slightly exposed. he looked perfect. 'Course he looked pretty good in his street wear as well, when he did the mad dash to the 7-11 for more supplies. At some point i remember pointing to him and telling Himself i'd like one of 'him' for us!

One thing we didn't expect was people bringing gifts. That had simply not occured to us way back when i'd asked Himself if we could do the open house thing. But people have their own ideas of how things should be and the result was some very lovely, and more than a bit thoughful, gifts were left for us to enjoy.

If there was a downside to any part of the day, it would be only that we couldn't visit each person for as long as we would have liked. The day went by in such a blur and it seemed i was barely saying hello to one person, before another came in! i think Himself did the wisest thing when He found a corner to sit in and then just talked as they came along.

i can't wait till next year - for the next annual Seville's Closet! i'm going to start planning now :)

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