I’m trying to organise a housewarming. At this rate, the house will already be warm by the time it happens, but what the hell. However, it presents a number of quandaries.
- Can I manage to invite the right mix of friends who are social enough that they can keep conversations rolling along through the night? – something I am pretty bad at. A conversation in a room full of clones of me wouldn’t be up to much. Well, not after the initial surprise wore off, anyway.
- Can I wangle it so that I invite a broad cross-section of friends most of whom don’t know each other, yet everybody who comes (especially the less outgoing ones) will know at least one other person (other than me, and assuming everyone comes of course) so they don’t end up sitting quietly in a corner wondering how early they can leave and not appear rude?
- Is it okay to just go through my e-mail address book picking people to invite? Do I know for a fact that nobody I want to invite isn’t on e-mail?
- Am I asking for trouble if I invite two people I am friendly with who had a relationship together but broke up in a not particularly clean way? Will one feel offended if I don’t invite both? Should I even mention this here, knowing they’ll probably both read it?
- Do I follow one friend’s suggestion and come up with a dress theme and/or party games, or can this thing float on personalities, sparkling conversation, food, drink and music alone?
- Would some kind of firey heatey thing be good for the back porch, or would that be seen (by people who were there) as too derivative of Beth & Doug’s housewarming earlier in the year? And if I do get such a thing, can I even manage to work the bugger?
- I don’t even know if any of the people I’ve considered inviting smoke. Maybe one or two, sometimes.
- Should I even bother mentioning in the invitation that the Nightrider stops nearby, or is it a fact that everyone I’m inviting will drive, ride bikes, get taxis or lifts home, and wouldn’t be seen dead on a night bus? Maybe just the PT-martyrs.
- If I plan to have it in a few weeks, is there enough time to get enough of the unpacked boxes tidied away that the place doesn’t look like a tip?
- Do I take the opportunity to buy that multi-disc CD player I’ve been thinking about, to replace my aging 1980s vintage CD player? Or is that too 1990s, and I’d be better served with some kind of MP3 server? Or do I just put up with changing the CD every hour, and no random play?
- Do I even have a selection of CDs that will not appal people who have not previously encountered my taste in music?
All things to consider.
