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HoSNoE

HoSNoE is a acronym developed on the Tom Waits elist. Here is a description from Raindogs:
“HoSNoE is something we do pretty much once a year. We pick a Saturday night, and from 6:00 pm to midnight local time everybody becomes acutely aware of what happens to them, what they do, see, hear, smell, taste. Then, the next day or so, everybody writes a post about whatever happened to them, whether anything DID happen to them or not. Because we have people in all corners of the globe (sort of), and from all walks of life (sort of), both inside and outside of prison (more than sort of), it can sometimes give a strong feeling of the diversity of lives behind all these plain text messages, and of the many lives all over the world that have been touched by this Waits guy’s music.
HoSNoE” is a combination of “Heart of Saturday Night” and “Night on Earth”, both Waits references. Usually, the HoSNoE has taken place at the Vernal Equinox — actually, the Saturday night nearest it. ”

This is what I posted to the TW list this morning – note: there is no official format except to try to be somewhat creative or very descriptive, but at all costs, to have fun with it.

Place: 30 degrees,18 minutes,.46″N
81 degrees, 35 minutes, 6″ W
or,
Home.

Time: 6:00pm – ~2:00am

Participants: Kathy (wife), Mark (brother-in-law), me. No-shows: Billy & Steve, brothers, who were busy demolishing a room in a building they’re re-doing, or still smarting from my beating their butts in a round of golf from Friday.

Event title: Saturday night (SN).

Event Description:
History: We have done SN for all 19 years that Kathy and I have been married. Most previous years, we had a Friday night as well, but as the ages move on, we’ve found that just SN works well. It has been somewhat poignant for me to add the HO to the SN at my place OE.

Prix Fixe, Course 1: cocktails – me, a Beefeaters on the rocks, Kathy, a citrus vodka and water with limes, Mark, Jack and ginger. Cashews. A few glass oil lamps providing an atmosphere. Music. Music. Music. I have a system where a desktop computer with ~400 gigs of music is connected to my 5 channel receiver. It is networked along with my wireless laptop. I use the laptop to take control over the desktop thus allowing me to take the laptop wherever I am, in the house, on the pool deck, in another room, etc., and I play DJ by picking the music as we move through the evening. It’s like those old diners where in each booth, one had the songs that would play on the jukebox. Of course, TW is always a part of the playlist.

Prix Fixe, course 2: we try to get to dinner. Usually with the imbibing, we have to force ourselves to eat something, so we’ve mastered the art of cooking and eating when we don’t necessarily feel the overwhelming urge to do so. There’s that old adage about eating and staying sober, but I don’t think it really works. Kathy usually cooks up a gourmet meal – she loves to be creative, but tonight was less creative but no less gourmet. Hamburgers. Gourmet you might ask? Hamburgers? The whole meal comes from our local organic store, Native Sun. These large patties were made of organic beef (you’ve heard of grain fed, aged, etc – well, the taste of this meat is right there or better). I cook these on our grill to a perfect medium rare and they are served on organic, whole wheat muffins baked with a thin layer of blue cheese. Grilled onions and red peppers are added to the toppings to create a Dagwood style sandwich. Baked organic french fries along with Amy’s organic ketchup finishes off our version of “fast food.” Of course, drinks continue to flow, Kathy and Mark still pouring the same, and I’m onto a nice Penfolds Shiraz.

Prix Fixe, course 3: dessert and more drinks and of course, endless music (it has always amazed me how many songs I actually go through in a night – 70, 80 maybe which makes choosing from ~50,000 a task, especially after the Shiraz kicks in. We pulled some cheescake (not organic) that spent too much time in the freezer on a plate and each took a fork and attacked. The cheesecake was a gift from someone who brought it to one of our parties and it never got eaten at that time. These are individual slices with about 3 flavors – strawberry, marble, and another – can’t grok it right now. We left no prisoners on that plate.

Throughout the evening, conversation abounds. Recurring topics of our SNs include, in no special order, an update on our health issues/finds/strategies, a little politics (always try to avoid this as we are in different camps with Mark, but a little sneaks in every time), local sports – an ok topic when football season is not in full bloom as Mark is an avid U Florida Gator- a graduate of UF, Kathy is a graduate and obsessed fan of Florida State U Seminoles, and I am a seminole-by-marriage. It is a heated rivalry here and we have fun off season, but during the season, we all agree to not watch games together, as much as possible. Conversation continues with reminiscing about life, dreams and disappointments, all of our kids as they have grown from being a part of our SNs to now all having lives of their own, and March Madness playing on a muted TV in the background.

Mark leaves sometime around midnight, Kathy and I continue on until we need some snacks and then finish the evening.

A cousin of Kathy and Mark’s used to take part in our SN occasionally. He is kind of red-neck and a bit rough in many of his comments and outlooks on life, but he would always offer a toast at the beginning of the evening: “Here’s to Saturday night – I wonder what the poor people are doing?” I always thought that was crass and insensitive, and when taken literally, it is. But I’ve adapted that phrase to remind myself how wonderfully lucky and rich I am in so so many ways.

Would anyone like to take a shot at it? Please comment here with yours.