Who's Been Invited to This Cocktail Party?

When I started this blog (as The Bigger Boat) back in 2006, I opened it with a post called "Welcome to my Tiki Lounge," in which I laid out the "rules" here.  For the most part, everything's been okay, and I no longer moderate comments. Some shit went down recently that made me feel that it was safer to pull everything off the public blogs (there was also a blog called Jane's Comic Book World which was an experiment in venting and brokeheart ranting) and just post a picture of my dead cat on the homepages of both.  I've imported all of the posts from both blogs here, which took freakin' hours to do, so anyone who wants to know what happened, well, it's all here.

I know a guy who, when he is sober, and even when he's fairly drunk, is a really great guy. I like him a great deal, in fact. He's a talented musician, and super-funny. I'm even friends with him on the Faceblech (though I've deactivated my account for the time being, huge waste of time). But a bartender friend of mine described him thusly:  "Oh, so-and-so, he's just one beer away from being an asshole."  And I learned to watch his eyes carefully when we were having a few beers, because I could see the moment when the asshole would emerge, and knew that was when it was time for me to go.  Thing is, this happened in bars, not in my living room, so I knew that if the drunk asshole showed up, I couldn't make him leave. So I did the leaving instead.  That was fine.

But, this is my cocktail party, and I find that ultimately I do better with a limited invitee list.  Some people have been gently escorted to the door with the instruction that maybe they should go home and sleep it off.

So who's left?

A very, very carefully-edited selection of folks.  I've broken bread or lifted a glass or two with everyone who's been invited, except a handful (literally, I can count you on one hand).  One is even an old, old, old friend who started out as an email flame way back in 1997 (god, that was a long time ago), who never knew I had a blog in the first place. I got a really lovely offline note from him today after I sent my invitation to him. I hope he comes around and reads me.  I don't know if he ever knew how much I love writing.

Some of my friends here, I haven't met in person, some of you I may meet soon, some of you I may meet someday, and a couple I may never meet at all, but you were introduced as "a friend of ours," so don't do a Donnie Brasco on me, 'mkay?  You maybe understood something basic about me, my point of view, or my situation, and you got it enough to offer funny, thoughtful comments. You maybe didn't agree with my point of view on things, but you were always civil.  I appreciate civility.

Maybe I overlooked a few people?  Maybe.  Maybe not.