12.11.2010

Today I'm taking a break from photography to host a party for 100 people.

If you've read my blog over time you know that I swim with a masters swim club.  We have some pretty august members.  Five or six gold medal winning Olympians, the random world record holders and even a few famous people from other sports.

And no matter what your rank in the pool if you swim with our group you are part of the team.  We swim six days a week and have workouts available at 7am, 8:30 am and at noon.  Longer workouts on Saturdays and Sundays.  We average 3,000 yards on weekday practices and 5,000 yards on weekends.

We have a number of coaches who were All Americans or Olympic contenters, on the deck.  To a person we are more competitive than most.

We swim in an incredible outdoor pool that's heated to 82 degrees.  We swim there all year long.  Even when it snows.....

We generally get more natural vitamin D than any of our friends.  This year I'm hosting the Holiday Party for everyone at my house.

I've got a refrigerator full of spiral cut hams and smoked turkeys.  I've got cases of wine strewn thru the dining room.  Every one is supposed to bring a pot luck side dish. And if you don't like my wine then it's BYOB.  But what dawned on me is how great it is to have one hundred+ extra friends.  People I see four or five times a week and have for decades.  How we check in with each other.  How we take care of each other.  I think it will be amazing to see what all these people actually look like with their clothes on.......

Sometimes it feels great to take a day off from photography and just play with your friends.  The fire pit and the marshmallows are ready.  The weather report says "clear with a high in the 70's today."  I'd better charge the batteries for the point and shoot camera.  Something tells me we're going to want some documentation.

5 comments:

Daniel Fealko said...

"clear with a high in the 70's today."

That sounds wonderful about now. I just came down from shoveling snow off of our roof after receiving nearly four feet of the stuff in the last few days (with an expected three feet more coming). I kept thinking "I'd rather be out shooting" while I was throwing the white stuff over the edge.

Enjoy your break Kirk. You definitely deserve it.

Godfrey DiGiorgi said...

Wish I lived or was visiting in Austin today ... !

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

I'd insist you come to the party. It's 68. The sun is fading. The luminarias are glowing. It's all good, clean fun.

Wolfgang Lonien said...

How cool - I wish you all a nice evening. Oh, and I definitely wish that someone takes snapshots of it, so you can remember it later...

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

Party was a complete success. I ended up with about a case and a half of great wine, left over and brought as presents. We have about two cases of great beers left over that people brought by. We had nearly 100 people. They started coming around 7 pm and the last person left at 12:15 am. People brought an amazing assortment of desserts, savory side dishes and cool appetizers. A dozen people ended up sitting around the fire pit sipping burgundy as the temperature dropped ahead of a big cold front. Steve kept the fire pit stoked with dried white cedar logs.

I used four LED lights to light up the walk way to the front door. I didn't have time to take a single photo.

Tomorrow we relax and build up energy for the Zachary Scott Theater Christmas Party. We're just guests....

Hope I can crawl out of bed to swim tomorrow....