last night was the down together radical potluck, with is pretty much just an excuse for the down together house to invite people over for a big house party once a month. if you haven’t heard, the down together collective is a co-op in houston’s 3rd ward full that attracts, what i like to generalize as “seditition book” (now know as the East Side Social Center) sort of people. This pot luck is pretty much open to the public, the house only asks that people bring a vegan or vegetarian dish to share. this was only my second pot luck, but i feel like i’ve been going to them all my life. that’s just how the vibe at down together goes, you walk in the door and automatically feel like you belong there.

cats on the table and toilet are a MUST at any house party. this one is absolutely no exception.

i brought homemade bread and fig jam. needless to say it was scarfed up super fast.

here i am with jackie and two of her friends. we all, along with another friend, we to Y.E.Torres’ belly-dance-yoga-fusion class that i’m ALWAYS talking about. yesterday’s class was especially fun. there were a few more students than usual and we spent most of the time working on hand/arm movements.

this is a blurry picture, but it actually works out perfect because the installation piece pictures is sort of a surprise. i don’t really know who’s putting it on, just to give you an idea lets just say people who are some how related to the East Side Social Center/ The Foundry/Houston Counter Radio, are making a plastic bag dragon puppet installation thing at summer fest 2012. i’m going to be at summer fest 2012 getting folks to sign the Keep Sharing Free petition, and and psyched to stop by their art piece.

through out the night the crowd was pretty evenly distributed between the kitchen, living room, and outside patios.

i followed the music. here is where the dance party went down. by the last song we were all sweating and singing, it was that weird thing where i didn’t know the songs but the words just sorta came to me. no pictures of me dancing, but you know i was. dancing is one of my very top favorite things to do.

the rest of the night was spent cooling off outside (hard to believe a may night in houston was cooler than the inside of the down together house, but it was). there was also a lot of corny joke telling and snacking going on in the kitchen. sometime around 8:30pm most of the food had been eaten, so by snacking i mean eating raw garlic and rasins. by midnight most everyone had gone home. the rosalie haus gang and i were some of the last to leave. so long down together collective, thank you of another PERFECT evening filled with good food, friends, music, stimulating conversations (the pirate jokes in particular) and laughter. see you next month.

(if you were missing makenzie, just know that i was too. she’s back at home in the suburbs for the summer. hopefully i’ll get to catch up with her in person soon. for now it’s skype dates and texting.)

.dena.