How to Party Like a Geek

Two weeks ago, I hosted my first party ever.  I don't count bridal and baby showers I helped with, because that wasn't solo work.  Here's how it came about: I "recently" realized that the majority of my close friends are, like Ross and me, unashamedly geeky.  

There's Ryan, who knows more Doctor Who trivia than, I think, Steven Moffat himself.  There are my parents and their besties Lee and Shelly, who made Friday nights their double date nights for years - because that's when Stargate: SG-1 was on.  Oh, and their daughter Shannon, whose fashion sense would put her on par with any splashy comic book villainess or heroine.  There's also Ross's buddy Matt, who has taken on the heroic task of raising his three daughters to be geeky princesses, despite any good-natured intervention on the part of their non-geeky mom Jaime.  Not to mention, my new pal Emily, a quirky young artsy-type who refuses to let her son drink out of her Spiderman mug.

Other people have Superbowl parties, where they chow down on high-fat snacks and celebrate big, meaty guys punching each other around.  Some folks throw parties for awards shows, all the while sipping on frothy alcoholic beverages and making snarky comments about gowns, hair, and jewelry.  Why shouldn't I throw a bash celebrating all the things that, in the past, made me a social pariah?

Girl-cat squares off with Catwoman!

I sent out handmade invitations.  I spent hours researching to create the perfect trivia challenge, relying primarily on the Big Five: Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, and a conglomeration of X-Men, Justice League and Avengers.  Yes, I realize that Harry Potter and Supernatural and about a million other franchises could have made their way into the mix as heavy hitters, but I considered my audience, and these were the fandoms that were most thoroughly represented among my nerdy kin. 

Totally retro. Photo cred: Emily G.

On the menu were Kryptonite Krunch (Chex Mix), Tribble Kibble (kettle corn), Iced SereniTea and Romulan Ale (blue Hawaiian Punch), Green Arrows and Black Canaries (celery sticks and pitted olives), T.A.R.D.I.P. (salsa con queso), Darth Taters (potato puffs), Obi-Wan Kielbasa (smoked sausage discs), Bowties Are Cool pasta and even chocolate-chip Wookiees.

I dressed as River Song, circa "Let's Kill Hitler" and sprayed my naturally curly hair into a huge hive of spoilers, and my husband donned his red captain's tunic (after polishing up his freshly shaved head).  

O Captain, my Captain!

I read the questions from my ThinkGeek T.A.R.D.I.S. journal as our guests observed our many geeky T-shirts, displayed as decoration.  Loki paraded her tiny little cat self around, getting into a bit of a tussle with Shannon, whose Catwoman costume might have intimidated her a bit.  Even Jaime, pregnant and dressed quite comfortably as a female version of Frodo Baggins, was pretty happy to win the doorprize - a Spiderman sippy bottle.

Loki lurves the Doctor.

Completition ramped up among the three carefully matched teams - The Terrible Tolkienators, the Raging Redshirts and the Kiss-My-Asgardians.  We learned that being a geek does not automatically mean that you've seen all the Star Wars movies.  We also learned that Emily does a beautiful whale impression, that most superhero themes sound alike, and that my dad didn't even need to wear the iconic orange hat for him to walk around the house scowling like Jayne, the hero of Canton.  We also learned that sweet Thor, despite his ultra-masculine name, is kind of a fraidy-cat and spend most of the party hiding.  He only appeared - as if freakishly on cue - when my dad and Emily were reading their hastily scribbled sci-fi story, about a race of catlike gods from the distant planet...Thorpiter.

The whole shebang - celebrate ALL the fandoms!

For one lovely evening, my house was full of heroes and villains, the whole Pond family, and one very photogenic little cat.  In retrospect, I think I would have made the trivia questions a little easier.  I also would have baked about three more batches of Darth Taters.

I got a request that our next batch have an 80's theme.  Which I can, like, totally handle.

Unless my dad shows up in legwarmers.

Now Leaving The Shire...

Very few people appeared to be over 35 years old.  The vast majority were short, dark-haired and wearing glasses.  The girls were in simple clothes - drab coats, skinny jeans, and functional boots.  The guys wore Star Wars or Avengers T-shirts.  Some wore suspenders.  There was pleasant and polite chit-chat among the fans as they nibbled on popcorn and rattled boxes of Milk Duds (okay, the Milk Dud rattler was my husband).  Someone booed at an advertisement for Twilight-themed gift cards.

It was nice to be among my people.

I'm still a little surprised that we were able to get tickets - even a week in advance, one of the midnight showings at our favorite theatre was already sold out.  Ross and I nabbed tickets for the 3-D showing against my better judgment.  I might be a Geek Girl, but generally I can take or leave 3-D.  Like roller coasters.  They're fine and all, but I prefer not to be involved with them, thanks. 

Plus, paying $14 for a movie ticket gives me a rash.

Still, we packed our buckets of snacks like good little Hobbits (I brought homemade chocolate cupcakes in my giant purse) and struggled to find two seats together.  Pastor Stephanie had given up a heads-up that they had opened the theatre two hours in advance, and even at 11:00, she and her family had to split up because most of the seats were already taken!  We ended up sitting near the front, to the far left.  Which I disliked.  But hey...what are you going to do?  At least it wasn't the front row.

The previews seemed to last longer than usual - or maybe we were all just chomping at the bit after over a year of tantalizing trailers and teasers.  Although, I did let out an audible "Squee!" when they previewed the upcoming Star Trek movie.  With Benedict Cumberbatch as The Ultimate Bad Guy.  Mentally I prepared a summer's worth of dates with Ross - most of them centering around science fiction or superhero movies.

Not that he'd mind.

I won't release any spoilers here.  No, really.  'Cause I absolutely despise it when we Whovians who have some, er, catching up to do accidentally read the spoilers that are vomited all over Pinterest and tumblr!  So, no, I won't do that to anyone.

All I will say is that Martin Freeman was born to play Bilbo Baggins.  That should come as no surprise to anyone who's already planning on seeing the movie - or anyone who's ever seen him act in, like, anything.  Tiny, itty-bitty almost-spoiler alert: there is a brief scene featuring various woodland creatures being helped by a kooky wizard.  One animal present is a small hedgehog.  There are rampant internet comparisons of Martin Freeman to hedgehogs and Benedict Cumberbatch to otters (if you're a Sherlock fan, you get this...if not, move along).  Therefore, I could not help but miss Sherlock during that scene and wonder why the BBC is trying to destroy my life by slowly devouring it with excellent programming.  Moving on...there was a great deal more comedy and light-hearted banter in this movie, as compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  There are a few gentle nods to the other movies, but this is very easily a stand-alone movie, for anyone whose husband (or wife, for that matter) might be goading them into a sci-fi or fantasy movie night.

Because beards turn any story
into an epic!

Speaking from a conservative perspective, for anyone who might have teenage or pre-teen fans in the house, I'll say that in general there is less violence than LoTR.  However, it does look more realistic because of the technological advancements made since the trilogy was released.   Tiny, itty-bitty almost-spoiler alert: there are several body parts chopped off in this movie.  Bad guys' body parts, of course, but it might be jarring to younger viewers.  There's not a lot of blood, though.  On the flip side, the presentation of the dwarves in this movie is quite different than the Gimli we meet elsewhere, and makes for a more "fun" fellowship than surly Sean Bean and L'Oreal spokes-elf Legolas.

So, basically, I'm saying: go see it.  The 3-D is pretty darn neat, but it's not necessary for the enjoyment of the film.  The great acting, humor, beautiful scenery and spectacular CG take care of that.