Spent some time yesterday finalizing some of the details for the book launch dinner party and making up invites on the computer. Today and tomorrow I print them out and cut them up and assemble them. Yes, it would have been simpler to just e-mail everyone. In fact, we already did e-mail everyone, but there is a part of me that thinks handmade paper invitations are just too charming to resist. And you can assemble them in front of the tv.
We wish we could invite hundreds more people (there are hundreds more on our wish list), but we think we can only fit 80 people max in our new condo (and that's assuming that it doesn't rain), and between family and work colleagues, there's already almost 40 people we feel obliged to invite, which doesn't leave room for nearly as many of our friends as we'd like. So if you aren't invited, please don't feel bad, because I couldn't invite any of my three best friends from grammar school, or my two favorite teachers from high school, or any of my Clarion class, or or or...
If you'll be in Chicago on July 23rd, anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the afternoon launch party at The Hothouse -- 2-5 p.m. It'll be a S. Asian arts fest, with book readings and poetry and spoken word and dance and theater and hopefully some music. Should be great fun. $5-10 donation requested. We'll have books for sale, and samosas to eat, and the Hothouse sells drinks, and you can meet my mother (an extremely rare opportunity). Tell your friends!