So after Palm Springs I was struck down with a cold that has left me snotty and drippy. But even at the low point of the illness, last Saturday, I was still able to attend the sleepover.

That's right, we had a sleepover.

Because we miss that particular cozy feeling of falling asleep in the same room with a bunch of friends, giggling in the dark, drunk with new secrets (or whiskey), the housemates and I organized a sleepover. There was an opening ceremony that featured everyone dressed in their finery -- argyle sweaters, smoking jackets, blazers with leather patches on the elbows -- and smoking huge cigars. Then we cleared the living room floor, covered it with mattresses and blankets and lounged in our pajamas. Taboo was played. Monster Squad was watched -- and partially slept through. Cranium was conquered. (I am the Word Worm master.) Around five am, the morning light barely creeping up the edges of the sky, I blew my nose one last time and lay down on the floor. But Rob promptly launched into the entire script of Merman: The Movie, which was hatching from his brain, fully grown, right at that very moment. "Stop!" I finally yelled toward the middle of Act II, after Merman's father has sent him to the surface to fall in love with a human girl. And then it was quiet.

We slept.