warming up the house

yesterday was fun and full on. i woke up to a house bustling with activity (well it alwasy is). everyone had just been to the mexican grocery store and juan and his mum began cooking straight away (11am?) they didnt stop til 5pm. it was so cool... they prepared sauces from scratch, roasted pork and chicken in some amazing sauce, she hand made maize tortillas and then wrapped chicken in them and steamed them in tinfoil. i tried to help and learn and attempted to speak spanish (this gave her free reign to babble at me in the fastest spanish possible so i had to resort to smiling and nodding). i peeled potato's. i fried little taco rolls with teriyaki chicken in them. juans mum made this massive pot of what i called mexican gumbo- ceviche. lots of seafood and shrimp and other amazing ingredients. in the end she was very tired (she said she used to own a restaurant but now her feet hurt) and so was i (i vacuumed and scrubbed the bathroom... mmmm). but the party had begun.
juan is very involved in the deaf community and especially the gay deaf community so half of the guests were deaf and gay and the other half were just gay. or mexican. after a while i was so overwhelmed i just smiled and nodded at everyone not knowing if they could hear me or if they were mexican, or gay. it was fun though- upstairs was croftons drinks bar (margaritas!) and downstairs was the amazing food extravaganza. i met some nice folks- just had a schpiel (?) about where i was from bla bla bla. i ate SO much and then talked to the fam for an hour and a half and got really homesick. by that stage i was sick of wandering upstairs and down looking for people i dont even know (where were you guys?!) so i went to sleep to the sounds of carl's acting school friends singing and laughing.
today is the cleanup but its pretty tame
the worst part about last night was my double up on place mat present got opened SECOND and i had to apologise. they must have felt bad coz today the place mats are proudly displayed on the table.