"Don't feed it. It's not used to it."

I attended a party last night thrown by an eclectic group of worldly 30-somethings. These folks were like something straight out of a Lonely Planet guidebook. They talked about travel and camping and writing music and filmmaking and touring with bands and writing.

There were people from all over the world at this thing, including a Brazilian, a Cuban, and a Lithuanian, among others. There was a half housecat/half ocelot on a leash that would forcefully knock over plates to get what it wanted, and a 12-year-old kid who described the origins of emerging artist M.I.A. with emphatic quotation marks: "She's *QUOTATION gesture* Sri Lankan *QUOTATION gesture*."

I just don't know how to describe the party, it was that unusual.

When I was in high school, I kinda thought that I would grow up to be just like these people, but with only ten years to go, I don't think I will morph into the scene like I believed I would.