The Cookout (Pt. 3)

(I decided to break this into two posts since it was so long)

After I finished slaughtering the food, I sat with my friends and chatted a bit. The Divo's boyfriend is a nice guy but doesn't speak much English (he's Chinese). I was told that he would be shy and withdrawn but I'm guessing he felt comfortable because he was asking me about my house, family, and job. It's great to see The Divo happy because as long as we've been friends (6 yrs.), I haven't seen him with a steady boyfriend. He seems very settled and there is buzz that they may be getting a place together in the foreseeable future! I smell housewarming!

My girl, 3 Degrees, was very laid back too. She's Chinese so I'm sure that helped The Divo's man feel a bit more at ease. Her boyfriend is a bit uptight. I've known her since HS so it's a bit awkward having history with her and he's not "in" on certain topics. Plus, she (and her ex) hung out a lot with me and my only girlfriend so it's hard sometimes not to want to bring up those old times. She and her boyfriend left early and then The Divo and his man left not too long afterwards. So with no one to hang out with, I ended up moving stuff inside.

My mom's friend who is diabetic did cause a small scene and nearly collapsed on the patio. After going inside and cussing out her husband, they left and we found out later she was admitted to the hospital. Hopefully she'll be okay. Furthermore, the husband of my mom's best friend (she passed away in December) was in town from New Jersey so it was good to see him. My niece and her tribe (she has four little kids) didn't come through as promised and that has me annoyed with family. A lot of my cousins didn't show, including the newly outed one and that is developing a "screw them all" attitude. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt but sometimes it's hard when people get tacky and don't call or don't respond. But then again, as Dave Chappelle would say ... BLACK PEOPLE!

I took a short nap and hung with my brother's friends. One of the guys he invited used to be a security guard at my office building. Needless to say, I had a thing for him so I was like a little school girl hanging around him.

Overall, this wasn't the greatest cookout. The turnout compared to the last 3 years was very low. Year one we had about 60 people, year two was around 40, year three was over 80 and now this year was barely 40. I blame the economy. No one from out of state came. I really missed Kingston the most. We have tons of food left over and even though people took plates to go, we still have several huge pans of chicken and ribs. I'm glad this is the last year. It's like a movie trilogy. The second movie is the biggest while the third goes out with a bang. If you come back to do a fourth, well, you're just asking for trouble. And we got it. Many people didn't call (like my friend Crazy) and others bailed outright. The most frustrating thing is that so many people constantly ask us throughout the year when the "big cookout" is and then don't even show up. Even our cook was out of state! We should've heeded the signs but we didn't. All in all, I had a good time, I always do, and I did appreciate those that came but as I said in the first post ... all good things must come to an end.