What I loved about last night was the community of men who came together.  It was so much fun to be in the company of lively, energetic gay men, all out to have a fun evening.  It was the kind of evening that I had hoped to create when I moved out of my marriage last summer and into my own apartment.

My prior dinner parties were much more formal with a fancier menu.  Last night I went with a fun summer menu that was easy to prepare while we watched the movie: Cole slaw, chicken wings and corn on the cob.  I stepped away from the movie three time: once to turn on the oven; once to put the chicken wings, which I had prepped, in the oven; and once to turn off the oven and turn on the corn to steam.  When the movie was over, dinner was served.  One man turned to me and said, “How did you cook this dinner while we watched the movie?” It’s all in the prep work and being a good planner.

It was the moments when we all stood around the kitchen bar area, ate appetizers that everyone had brought, and talked and laughed, that I loved.  It had a joyful quality as we all told funny, sexy and sometimes over the top stories.