Parties and Mahjong

To be honest, I don't think I've put complete attention to a party in a long time until last night's celebration of my parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary. It's not along the lines of my mother almost making me feel guilty of staying cooped up in my room in front of my laptop, mind you. I just thought of spending the time not having to worry over any conversations for the rest of the day.

As far back as I could remember, everytime there was a party here (with the exception of celebrations for my birthday, of course), I would always spend time here in my room with my younger cousins Dabz and Jostin and stay here doing our own thing until dinner time. But now that my youngest cousin and his family had migrated to Canada last August, there was barely anymore reason for Dabz and I stay upstairs in my room.

One firm reason why I managed to stay away from upstairs was because Dabz had brought along his PS2 that could only be hooked up downstairs in the den where the Wii was, so it was enough. Another reason that kept me downstairs was the constant arrival of the guests that consisted of the usual relatives plus a few family friends.

And then of course... there was mahjong. Call me crazy, but my family kind of has an unspoken 'rule' of sorts that says that you're not part of the family (both my mom and dad's side) if you don't know how to play even a simple game of mahjong. It was actually an awkward thing to see that the kids (that is, my generation) were the ones playing the game while the adults busied themselves chatting with one another, catching up on their lives. Believe me, you never see that.

Of course, mahjong can be addicting when it can be. Especially since we were all just playing it out of spite rather than with chips as the adults normally would. My sister's boyfriend, my brother's girlfriend and my cousin's girlfriend all managed to learn how to play and eventually enjoy it, so the next party should post to be an exciting event I would not want to miss by staying in front of my laptop anymore.

Another thing about this particular party is that after the longest time, the last guests had left at past midnight already due to numerous conversations and much catching up. I don't think I've ever spent that time completely away from the laptop, but it was a good change. Once in a while, it's nice to just spend the evening having fun with your relatives, which I'm very much thankful for.

PS. The second hole of Wii Golf in the Beginner's level has been conquered with my hole-in-one, which was executed by pure chance. ^_________^b