The Boy Who Cried Party

So I don't do alot of entertaining. Besides the fact that I'm sort of a hermit- I've never been big on like 'having people over'. It always seemed like a grownup thing to 'have people over.' But I've thought about having a party on and off alot and have threatened to actually have one a bunch of times in the past. At one point I announced I was gonna have an Arbor Day party every year and totally own Arbor Day. But I never really found out when Arbor Day actually was and it always quickly devolved into a nonplanned nonevent. I've also been known to threaten a Super Bowl party now and then. Maybe Halloween party every year. Tested the waters on the idea of a New Years party once or twice. None of which ever happened. I've never thrown a party.

(BTW I finally found my camera today. It was in my jacket which was for colder weather hanging in the closet along with a tenner! Here's a picture of Roscoe lying flat on the floor with his feet sticking out which is funny):

Anyway, over this weekend I had no big Memorial Day plans and on Sunday I felt like I oughta be doing something so I started calling around to friends to see what was up. I found out that like nothing was going on. Everyone seemed to be just hanging around. So I halfassed told people I was gonna buy a grill and barbecue on my fire escape and they were like, 'Cool... whatever...' After telling people I was gonna do that I wondered if I was really gonna do that. The hassle of having a party was weighing me down on the couch. The TV had some good stuff on... and maybe it would be better if.... I just.... closed my eyes for a little nappy nap and...

NO! Get up! Buy stuff for the party I said! And I did! Somehow I mustered superstrength and got off the couch and motivated to actually go ahead with my bbq party. 

I headed out to the store and bought some hamburger meat and hot dogs and chicken. I grabbed a bag of chips and a case of beer. I picked up a grill at the hardware store and put it on my fire escape like this: I was like all proud of myself.

(Sorry for the bad picture. The flash would reflect off the glass. But no flash made it all shakey or whatever. But whatever you get the point.)

When I got home I unpacked stuff and started calling around to people to tell them to come over. But they seemed to have disappeared here and there. One person ended up going out to Long Island. Another was MIA. A third person couldn't believe I was serious and wanted to know who else was coming. All of a sudden I realized my party planning skipped something kind of important.... which was like confirming the fact that people would actually show up. No one really believed me I guess.

I looked at my raw meat and my new fancy $15.99 grill and realized I messed up. The worst party planner ever decided to throw together at the last minute party and it was a big flop. :-(  I felt stupid for buying all the stuff with no confirmations from people. Luckily one friend called back and told me she was invited to a 'legit' barbecue through friends of friends and I should go.

So I put all my stuff in the freezer, grabbed Roscoe and headed to this other bbq party which was obviously legit. They had like a backyard garden. They actually had actual people there. They had beer and other drinks. They had sausage and chicken and burgers and salads and stuff. And music and stuff. Roscoe was a superstar hit and liked running around in a yard with grass. So that was nice and it turned out to be a good day.

I guess I learnt a lesson when it comes to party throwing. It can't be a half-assed thing. You gotta plan ahead. You gotta make sure people show up. You gotta actually want to have a party. Anyway, I learned alot of valuable party throwing lessons --and in celebration of my non-bbq party learning experience, I fired up my new grill and cooked a solo cheeseburger on it. It came out awesome! I gave Roscoe a piece and he looked at me like, 'Dude! You've been holding out on me! Totally!' Anyway, I'm psyched to have a grill for the summer. Maybe I'll grill for Arbor Day!

...whenever that is.

ok bye!

tOdd