Digital Analogue

Party: success

One of the things I've been doing every New Year's for the past several is head on over to Zach's (formerly in Urbana, last year in Chicago) for a multi-day megaparty with one day for gaming, one for movies, and so on. Loads of fun. I've kind of wanted to try something similar, and (wanting to start small) I aimed for a two-day party this year: one a more or less traditional 4th of July barbecue, and the second a little gaming party on the 5th.

While it lacked one of the hallmarks of a good Zach party—many people staying the night and hence the feeling that the party never actually stops—I wasn't really aiming for that, yet. Since it was my first try at a multi-day party, I was really just hoping that I'd get someone here on each day! Yesterday was a success, with about a dozen people showing up at various times. For the most part, it was just a nice party, lasting through the afternoon and almost til dark, with most of us spending most of the time sitting out on the porch and enjoying the day. (The excitement of the day was when the porch swing collapsed (!), though fortunately the only casualty was a broken beer bottle.) Today, then, was a success beyond my wildest hopes: I'd figured I'd get two or three people (plus myself), and it'd last for a few hours. In fact, at the height of the party I had ten people, ranging in age from 9 to older than me, with two tables running. The party wrapped up with a four-person game of Settlers that wrapped up about an hour ago. And the best part is, that was not including a whole bunch of folks both out-of-town and local who wanted to come but had a one-time conflict; so hopefully if I repeat this next year it'll be even bigger-better. (The 4th is a Friday next year, which will help, too.) Maybe then I can think about expanding. :)

And the gaming party let me offload the most perishable of my overbought barbecue party food. Which was an unforeseen plus, but it sure worked out well. My main leftovers at this point are pasta salad, which I'll eat most of over the next few days, and some fresh cantaloupe and pineapple, not yet sliced, so I've got a week or so on that. Yay!

"FIGHTING IGNORANCE SINCE 1973 (it's taking longer than we thought)" --www.straightdope.com