I am not a particularly popular person. In general I am rarely invited to parties. I can actually think of a few parties that I was specifically not invited to including my ex-girlfriend Nadia's wedding. But this holiday season I was invited to a couple of holiday parties from people at work. What's funny is that people who invite you to their holiday party at work realize that they aren't inviting other people to their parties. So whenever they discuss their parties they speak to me in hushed voices to avoid any possibility that office-mates might discover that a party is happening that they weren't invited to. Being invited or not invited to a party must be a basic social instinct among primates. I can imagine that Jane Goodall is somewhere in Africa getting invited by Koko the Gorilla to an exclusive party that not all of the gorillas were invited to. She carefully writes it down and then attends on Saturday from 11-3 the first gorilla party and then excuses herself to move to the 4-7 the party held by the gorillas who aren't particularly fond of Koko. The late night party is all humans drinking embege (banana liquor/beer used at wedding ceremonies in Africa).
When I walked over to Peter today he was having a conversation with a nice balding man. Peter introduced the man as a former colleague of his from PTC. Because I was invited to Peter's party and I had recieved the invitation only yesterday I was curious how home made the invitations were. They looked like his three young daughters might have had a hand in creating them since there was surely pasting, cutting, and stickers involved. So I asked him in front of this colleague about it. Peter quickly changed the conversation to entrepreneurship which led me to go into a long tirade about how not everyone uses the resources available to them at MIT and let him in on what I had learned earlier in the day about the Deshponde center and their grants. His friend thought that the Media lab had produced some great stuff. Peter wanted to meet with me in his office after lunch so he left I and I was thinking about what I might be doing for lunch.

I went over to chat with Hattie while Peter was out at lunch. Hattie has also invited me to an illicit Holiday party on Saturday. I suppose if you read this and you weren't invited that Hattie will be mad at me but very few people read this. So we had a quick quiet and secretive chat about her holiday party.

Peter got back from lunch and I figured he had some good news to tell me like that I had been fired. Instead he looked at me seriously and told me that the person that he went to lunch with normally is invited to Peter's holiday parties. But this year Peter hadn't invited this guy. So I had rubbed on a sore spot discussing the holiday party that Peter had not invited his colleague to. Then Peter and I discussed how he was going to have someone go to his party who is the president of a local bank that he would like me to meet.

When I got home Kim had been fired from her latest job working at a law firm. She offered to work full time for me but I don't have any openings for a full time staff of people to organize my life. It would be nice but a personal asisstant just isn't in the cards for me right now. I got a blister putting up the Pottery Barn shelves that had finally been delivered as a replacement to replace the ones stolen from the entranceway that we picked up this weekend. The apartment keeps getting better decorated and more organized. Soon it may look good enough for us to have a party in Brookline. That would be great because I have a subscription to internet karaoke that I never get a chance to use anymore.

Anyways the most likely reason why I am not very popular and generally not invited to parties is that I have a big mouth. But this year I have three to go to on Saturday. Don't tell anyone. Shhh....