Happy Sunday, everyone!

Every Wednesday, blogging buddy Aaron over at The Confusing Middle posts a “Sunday Scribblings” prompt for other bloggers to ponder and respond to on the following Sunday. If you’re a blogger looking for more inspiration, I highly recommend jumping in and joining in on the fun!

This week’s prompt is: Party!

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”

This is a quote from The Great Gatsby that I have remembered since I read it as a junior in high school. I should also mention that it is pretty much the only thing that I remember from The Great Gatsby because I really despised that book. I also thought it was about a magician until I read it. I mean…can you blame me?

I assumed that it was Daisy who said it (mainly because that was the only woman’s name that I remembered from the book and I know that a woman said this quote), but apparently it was someone named Jordan? I can only assume that as Daisy was the main woman, Jordan is the proverbial “Daisy” to Daisy’s “Princess Peach” if I were comparing this to the Mario universe.

…did I get that right?

This quote always stuck out to me because I really agree with it! I’m not sure if I actually have a preference for “large vs small” parties (although my social anxiety would say I prefer small parties, especially if the location is small and everyone is packed in like sardines). However, I do think that if the party is small, there’s no hiding, to a certain extent. If you make a blunder, everyone sees it. If there’s someone you don’t like at the party, you’re pretty much forced to interact with them anyway. At large parties, people can form different smaller groups and even gather in different rooms, keeping things a bit more private. As someone who does best in 1-on-1 or small group settings, this does seem a bit more manageable to me.

Either way, whether the party is large or small, one of my issues with parties is that they often happen or go on far too late for me. College parties used to start at like 9pm. Are you kidding me? You want me to actively choose to leave my residence at 9pm? I am not nocturnal, friend! As a morning lark, I believe that this could only be a personal attack on me and my lifestyle.

Editor Josh thinks it’s hilarious that I have been known to escape parties happening at my house once my bedtime rolls around. No matter how many people are left at my house, I’ll just slink upstairs to quietly get some shut-eye, even if it means that my friends are left hanging out with my parents. Don’t worry, though…my friends and my parents are buds.

Still unsure as to why Editor Josh finds this funny. I don’t get it? Isn’t this normal??????

As you can imagine, my social anxiety in conjunction with the fact that I prefer smaller groups and that I fall asleep as soon as the sun starts to set means that I typically avoid parties.

Shocking, I know.

Should I choose to attend a party, the party activities (or lack thereof) can cause some discomfort as well. Although I’m okay with some good ole fashioned sitting around and chatting, sometimes social anxiety can make me clam up when the only option I have is to talk to people and there are no other activities going on.

At college, parties were all about drinking (no surprise there), and I was incredibly upset to find out that most parties I went to didn’t even involve dancing. Because of this (and the fact that most parties started after my bedtime), I only attended like 1 or 2 parties my entire college career. Seriously, the one good thing about parties and we weren’t going to do it?!

I’ve never been a huge drinker, so without dancing, there wasn’t much for me to do at these 2 college parties. Alcohol has always been a part of my life, from beers and wines that my parents enjoyed on the nights and weekends to the mixed drinks that my dad would make for people at parties. I wasn’t taught that alcohol was something evil or forbidden, so I never had this idea that I couldn’t drink it. My parents allowed me to try some of their drinks when I was a teenager, and I didn’t like them, so I just figured I’d never really be a drinker. My parents have been so disappointed in me…

All that having been said, I actually do enjoy drinking games. In college, we had several nights just hanging out in someone’s room that devolved into drinking games, and I chugged bottles of water while watching everyone around me get sloshed. I’ve even had someone be my drinker-by-proxy when playing a drinking game. What? I like fun games, I just don’t like drinking!

At one college party, one of my sorority sisters had a mixed drink that she swore was so sweet that I wouldn’t be able to taste the alcohol. She offered me her cup, and when I took a sip, she legitimately stood close to me so she could watch the alcohol leave the cup and make sure that I actually took a sip and didn’t fake her out. Seriously?

So if I’m not drinking and there’s no dancing happening (I will remain bitter about this until I am old and bitter about everything else), what else is there for a Renata to do? Party games, of course! Beyond those fun drinking games, there are plenty of other games to enjoy and help facilitate conversations between party goers. From card games to board games to video games to even yard games at an outdoor party, we’re living in a time where there is an overabundance of options when it comes to fun party games…use them!

My ideal parties would technically be considered “game nights.” I would far prefer a night in with a group of friends where we play different games as opposed to an all-out rager where people are getting belligerent and wearing lampshades on their heads. Would game nights count as parties? I’m not sure. What constitutes a party, anyway? And who made those rules? Don’t get me wrong, I’m down to get absolutely turnt (or whatever the kids are saying nowadays) as long as it’s not too loud and I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.

If the qualifications for a party are a certain number of (read as: way too many) people and that they happen solely at nighttime, you can pretty much assume that the only way I’m going to a party is kicking and screaming. But if a party can consist of a group of 5 close-knit friends drinking iced tea and playing Cards Against Humanity before going to bed promptly at 9:30, then I am a true party animal.

So I guess my kind of party would be one of those parties that Daisy…or Jordan…or whoever would hate. Remember? That quote from The Great Gatsby I said at the beginning? You don’t, right? That’s how forgettable that book is. I can’t remember if it ends with them being dead the whole time or Mario defeating Bowser or the parents rescuing all of the kids from the island before they all kill each other or Leo being passed over for another Oscar…it definitely doesn’t end with a magician, so it was probably pointless anyway…

Photo by YingYi Dai on Unsplash