I'm hosting a party!!

*This is David writing once again...*

Richard loved a good party.

Richard loved a bad party.

Richad just loved parties!

He loved throwing them.

He loved going to them.

If there was a party somewhere, he wanted in.

I heard recently, that while in the US on a road trip, he discovered a (unrelated) McBride wedding taking place in his hotel... naturally, he wormed his way in & had a great time.  A party where none was expected?  Perfect!

He missed the housewarming party of Dan & Anisa this past weekend, something he was very much looking forward to.

He would have brought a bottle of his own home-made wine - a Barolo, a Cabernet... whatever would be appropriate for a housewarming.  I'm a beer drinker, so what do I know of wine?

I know that I will take a bottle home from his wine rack this weekend, let it age - a year, five, ten perhaps - and then enjoy it with someone I care about, as I cared about him.

This weekend, there will be another party.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner potluck planned for Saturday, once again at Richard's place.

It was decided to continue with the plan, as he would have wanted.

He didn't want anyone to mourn his passing.

He wanted people to 'eat the food and drink the booze' and remember the good times they had with him.

There were plenty of good times.

And they WERE good times.

There were some bad times, of course; like the 'Weekend of Crying', that first weekend after his diagnosis at the rental cabin (bad reason, but good weekend); the day he finally accepted he could no longer drive his pickup truck; the last road trip we took when it became clear he would need a professional caregiver to travel with him to care for his 'personal needs'.

But even with ALS, they were mostly good times.

Richard's Calgary social life started in September of 2010, when he first came to a pub trivia event at the Unicorn Pub downtown.  I was an organizer in a social group, and a dozen members came to that event with me.

This was an ongoing, mostly-weekly event at the pub, and a small core group of us had begun to attend regularly.

Then Richard walked in...   Immediately, I could tell he'd be trouble <laugh>.

All but two of that original attendee list are still in 'the group' of friends, eight years later.

Most of us see each other fairly regularly, but usually surrounding Richard.

As we are very different people, with very different lives, it pains me to acknowledge that we won't likely be seeing each other as often in the future - Richard was the glue that held 'the group' together.

We will try.

Over time, 'the group' grew larger, people came & went (as happens in life), but the core dozen or so have remained.

On Saturday, most of 'the group' will have one last party at Richard's place, to celebrate his life & the good times.

We will share stories, play a little trivia, do a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity (https://cardsagainsthumanity.com) or Exploding Kittens (https://explodingkittens.com), two of his favourite games, and of course, we will eat the food and drink the booze.

We will laugh, cry, maybe sing & dance (it depends on how much wine there is).

We will enjoy.  He would want that.

After all, it's a party.