Bittersweet Release Party
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Sunday night, we had a little release party for Bittersweet--yeah, about a month late. Release week was just too bonkers with the Summit, and the next weekend we were in Cape Cod, the next weekend we had houseguests--so we found ourselves at the end of August, a hot, clear Sunday night, an evening of celebration in the midst of a busy back-to-school season.
Brian and Jorie are amazing hosts, and their pool area was totally the perfect place for sweets and champagne to celebrate Bittersweet. It was hot, but in that it's-almost-over, soak-it-up kind of way. We planned to get all the desserts from bakeries and caterers, but one day this summer when my dad and I were running, he said, "You talk so much in the book about the importance of food made by hand with love...why not ask the Cooking Club to do the baking?" Great idea, right?
We did get just a few things from caterers and bakeries--rochers, macaroons, lemon bars from Cocoa Bean. But the rest was indeed made by hand with love. Amanda made super-cute light blue and white cake pops, Melody made buckeyes, and Margaret made strawberry and vanilla mini-cupcakes. Casey made scotcharoos and caramel-bacon popcorn clusters (yes, you read that right--caramel bacon. Yum!) Brannon made chocolate chip cookies and chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. Josilyn made beautiful little fresh fruit parfaits, and Kristin (not a CC member, just a sweet, willing baker) made graham cracker cupcakes with key lime cream cheese frosting.
Brannon ordered little bakery boxes and labeled them with Bittersweet stickers--instead of favors, each guest got to pack up a box of sweets to take home.
The night was cloudless, and the glow from the pool lit up everyone's faces as the sun faded. Old friends met new friends, my best friends from high school reconnected with Aaron's friends from college, laughing about moments from our wedding, possibly the last time they were together. I chatted with my brother and my in-laws and my favorite makeup artist ever and a dear friend who drove all the way in from Kalamazoo in mad traffic. My small group girls and friends from church and our neighborhood were there, eating and laughing.
After the party, we got home and changed into jammies and opened up the box of rochers and macaroons Brannon had saved for us (thanks, B!). We talked about the night, about what was different and what was the same as the Cold Tangerines book release party three years ago.
Cold Tangerines was the book that made me an author. It's like your first kid, the one that makes you a mother. There will be nothing in my life like that first book party. For one moment that night, I swear I could actually feel my life changing.
And now writing is my job. Some people teach school. Some people run companies. I write. It feels a lot more natural and less monumental than it did three years ago. But so does mothering. Those first moments after Henry's birth, I was stunned. I was a mother. I was someone's mom. And now that's the most natural thing in the world. Of course, I'm Henry's mom.
So Sunday night was less about being a writer and more about being a writer surrounded by great friends--people who help proofread and let me tell their stories, people who laugh with us and love our son and make life feel rich. The first party, as I look back, was about my life changing. This second party was about the people who walk with me, the dear friends without whom, literally, there would be no Bittersweet, both because they allowed me to tell their stories and because they helped me along the way in a thousand visible and invisible ways.
I thought, of course, about the people around the country who weren't there that night. It felt weird to celebrate without Annette and Andrew, Steve and Sarah, Joe and Emily, Kirsten, Monica, both Saras, Ruth, Julie, Jessie. They've been a part of this journey as much as anyone has.
At the end of the night, when Aaron and Emily and I sat in the living room, eating macaroons and talking about the best moments of the party, what I felt was thankful. Thankful to be able to do work I love, surrounded by people I adore.
