The Impending Party

I know most of you have received your invites already anyway, but I thought I'd write a little about the coming Burns' Night Celebration. I'm really looking forward to the festivities. After last year's immense success, I imagine this one will be smaller & a bit less intimidating. I remember counting upwards of about 55 people, many of whom I had never met. Furthermore, there were shoes covering the entire front 1/2 of my living room floor. It was suggested today by someone @ work that I put the shoes in a big box, but then we realized that 1 big box would cause us to ignorantly overlook a great opportunity. Maybe we'll split the shoes into 2 boxes @ play a sort of '70s fishbowl key-chain game. We'll see how well that goes over. Other, less problematic plans for the night include the Burns Supper. While the supper will be sans piper, there will certainly be haggis (vegetarian) & a wide array of food & drink. Plus, of course, the reading of Rabbie Burns poetry & maybe some puking in my driveway if a certain friend from the other side of Washtenaw Ave. is up for it. I , on the other hand, will be refraining from such excesses. I plan to have a good time but also be able to get out of bed the following day. We are talking about the FA Cup 4th round after all. I can't simply miss the game because I was too hung over to turn on the tv. It's possible though that the Arsenal v Newcastle game will be on the 26th which means I'll be able to watch it before the party & not have to worry about getting up the next day. Even so, I don't plan to make it another one of those days. I think those hung-over days might be behind me. I watched the Arsenal v Everton game in rather rough shape last year after St. Patrick's Day. I suffered through a rough breakfast & putt-putt outing after my b-day, & after the Bob Dylan show last fall I watched France drub the Faeroe Islands 6-0 while I was in rather sorry shape. That said, I don't want y'all to assume this will be some sort of teetotaler's affair, so in order to get everyone in the right frame of mind, here are the 1st 2 stanzas from Rabbie Burns' poem "Scotch Drink":
LET other poets raise a fracas
'Bout vines, an’ wines, an’ drucken Bacchus,
An’ crabbit names an’stories wrack us,
An’ grate our lug:
I sing the juice Scotch bear can mak us,
In glass or jug.

O thou, my muse! guid auld Scotch drink!
Whether thro’ wimplin worms thou jink,
Or, richly brown, ream owre the brink,
In glorious faem,
Inspire me, till I lisp an’ wink,
To sing thy name!
And now that you're all in the mood, here are a few links to get you started as you think about what to bring to the feast.
The World Burns Club
Burns Country
The Bard
The BBC Burns Page
Burns Supper on Wikipedia