Partay

It was my birthday yesterday.  I am 35 now and numerous facebook messages to the contrary "Haha, so old!" I don't feel old, or different at all for that matter.  I never make much of a fuss about my birthday but usually I have some people over to play games and hang out for an evening which is all well and good.  This year I randomly got invited to a Pollinator Party and decided to go do something new and different.  (A Pollinator Party is a normal potluck party where there is honey to be tasted and some people show up with bee pictures painted on their faces apparently.)

This, I think, is a better birthday tradition.  Now you will never get me to suggest that having people over to play board games is bad, largely because it is great.  Thing is though I can do that anytime and I tend to.  The nice thing about going to a party with a weird theme where I only know one person is that all kinds of cool and interesting things happen.  I try new food and drink (honey + herbs + sparkling water is fantastic), meet new people, and have lots of unpredictable discussions.  All these new people haven't heard my stories and don't know all my stuff so I can get all enthusiastic and rant about topics that excite me without boring anyone.  New people and new takes on old discussions make for a fun evening.

I am too much of an introvert to do that all the time.  I find parties with tons of new people tiring a lot of the time and I don't want to go to them constantly.  That said doing so every so often is a great way to shake up my social scene and let me meet some new folks and I need a kick in the ass to go out and do that now and again.  Making it a yearly tradition to get out to a random party where I don't know anyone to celebrate my birthday seems like a good way to get those good experiences without overwhelming myself.  Now I just need to sort out the logistics of finding a really fun party with cool people that I don't know on August 17th every year.

Good luck, I will need it.