From: aaron@atlantis.uucp
Subject: New Year Pizza Party
Organization: Atlantis Communications, Edmonton, AB, Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 04:47:12 GMT

Alfvaen ponders for a moment the garb he should adopt for the Undersea Pizza
Party.  Then he casts his mind back.  To a time when he accepted an invitation
to dine with the King of Aquatic Elves...

Alfvaen disappears into the Folks Room and returns in a rather...revealing
costume of gossamer sea silk, a few strategically placed shells, and the like.
Patrons see him blushing furiously.  "If I had anything else at all to wear,"
he mutters.  But soon he relaxes and gets into the spirit of things, and turns
to the task of figuring out what his perfect pizza is.

For, you see, Alfvaen is not very experimental, as a rule, when it comes to
pizza.  There are too many toppings that Alfvaen just does not like at all--
any form of seafood, for instance, or most vegetables(as pizza toppings--in
other settings, Alfvaen likes most vegetables just fine, as long as they're
not cooed).  And while he does tend to order the same type of pizza all the
time, can he really claim that it's ideal?

"Ah, what the hell," he mutters.  Then, louder, "Okay, VPM, give me a
pepperoni, bacon, mushroom, and half-pineapple pizza.  If I can't have the
ideal, I can at least have what I like.  Wench, bring me a drink."  He picks
up his pizza from the VPM, and kitten(in mermaid costume)brings him a Wildberry
Cooler.

Alfvaen starts to ruminate on the year past.  "It's been an interesting year,"
he says.  "Of course, what makes it the most so is my having discovered Usenet
and alt.callahans.  The rest has been overshadowed by that one discovery.
I've been spending a lot of time on the Net, and have cut back on other things,
like seeing friends.  Not that I spent too much time doing that in the first
place...but being on the Net all the time precludes them phoning me(the modem
connection, you see), and puts the onus on me.  And I hate phoning people, in
general.

"So maybe I should resolve to spend more time with friends next year.  My
record with resolutions hasn't been good, so I don't tend to make them often,
and I don't know how well I'll keep this one.  But maybe I can guilt myself
into doing it anyway.

"And I've been unemployed since September, mostly due to my lack of desire to
get off my butt and do anything in the job search area.  Maybe I should go
Liralen's route and try to start slowly--one a day, or one a week, and then
a slow increase.  But I'm really looking forward to going back to school in
September, if I can keep myself occupied and hopefully make some money in the
interim.

"Ah, hell.  I'm spoiling the party."  Alfvaen brightens with a visible effort.
"Happy New Year, everyone!  It's still about 26 hours away here, but net lag
will lessen that, perhaps...  I might add that I have no RL plans for New
Year's Eve whatsoever.  My wife wants to do something, just to do something,
even if it's not going out to a party or to see the fireworks(it'll probably
be -30, and I'm not going downtown and trying to get back in horrific traffic
in a car still tending to stall at stoplights, or walking, or waiting for buses
that never come).  Last year I sat at home and entered her mother's family
tree into a database program, while she went to bed at 9:00 and slept through
midnight.  We're just too exciting, and I'm getting depressed again.  This is
a party, isn't it?  Don't mind me, it's just end-of-year angst..."

-- 
---Alfvaen(Still looking for "October's Baby")
"Give me your mirth.  It bores me when you weep.                                 My loves you cannot touch.  They're buried deep."  ---Don Marquis
Current Album--Gandalf:Fantasia
Current Read--Tesseracts4
Newsgroups: alt.callahans