Warning: Bitching
(this would have been posted yesterday but Alex managed to knock us offline as he was going to bed ¬.¬)
I hope most of the people who showed up to my party had a good time. A couple people have said they did, though I haven't heard from most people. Personally, I don't think it went all that well and was annoyed by a few things.
First off, that whole groups of friends of mine didn't show up at all, including several people who said specifically they'd be there. I had one friend from my old Myers group, only half the STS crew, again None of my mellow mushroom coworkers, one person from the Tara group, a pair of my Atlanta friends, and it took considerable lobbying earlier in the week to coax some of the New Seattle people to come to the party and move their other plans back a week. I guess I should have listened to my earlier feeling that I should have canceled it all together, though it seemed like a good number of people were going to be there, including a good 7 or so people who said they would definitely be there and never showed up.
Second, I go ahead and get a pair of kegs (like the last STS party last year, except with two choices instead of just the Newcastle this time) and instead of drinking those, people just went though all my liquor instead. I really wish I would have just put all my liquor away prior to the party (Alex put them out in the first place, I wasn't intending on doing so at all really, but I wanted something there for the people who didn't like beer). The problem with this is that I spent a good sum of money on the kegs, which have to go back Tuesday, not to mention they go bad after a few days unlike the liquor. Which brings me to my third point.
Throwing a party is never cheap, and to expect to make back most of your money is a pretty foolish notion to begin with. I was feeling particularly generous though, and wanted people to have an enjoyable time so I got two of the best beers on the market, one light and one dark so that people could choose what they liked better. These two cost about $200 total. The sad thing is, if most people dropped $2-4 in the donation jar, the kegs would be almost fully paid for. However, at the end of the night when I took the basket down, there was a $5 (thanks to whoever gave that ^^) a $1 and a quarter. As I said, to expect even half the people who stop by to contribute would be a rather foolish notion, but I'd certainly hope more than presumably 2 people would drop of at least -something- Especially since people were more than happy to drain off 3/4ths of my liquor while the kegs were both still more than stocked by the end of the night.
Most parties in the past have not resulted in much for donations either (still 15x what I got tonight), but at least in those cases there tended to be a few extra liquor bottles left over from people who chose to bring alcohol instead of donating. No such bottles at this one, and practically no donations either. I guess most people just felt like leeching.
I do have to thank my roomate Matt, who donated a considerable amount, especially since I kind of screwed him over with the party planning earlier, and he even paid for most of the non-alcohol related supplies needed for the party. That and Aaron, who did bring a sizeable amount of preped food for the grilling, which was indeed quite tasty.
Overall though, that was probably the worst of the dozen or so parties I've thrown in the past. I don't think I'll be throwing any more while I'm in college. Maybe I should stop following my general policy of leaving a decent donation or at least stop bringing over a considerable amount of alcohol when I go to other peoples parties as well.
If anyone in STS wants to try another attempt at a work party, or even just an Azumi screening, let me know. I sure won't be.
I hope most of the people who showed up to my party had a good time. A couple people have said they did, though I haven't heard from most people. Personally, I don't think it went all that well and was annoyed by a few things.
First off, that whole groups of friends of mine didn't show up at all, including several people who said specifically they'd be there. I had one friend from my old Myers group, only half the STS crew, again None of my mellow mushroom coworkers, one person from the Tara group, a pair of my Atlanta friends, and it took considerable lobbying earlier in the week to coax some of the New Seattle people to come to the party and move their other plans back a week. I guess I should have listened to my earlier feeling that I should have canceled it all together, though it seemed like a good number of people were going to be there, including a good 7 or so people who said they would definitely be there and never showed up.
Second, I go ahead and get a pair of kegs (like the last STS party last year, except with two choices instead of just the Newcastle this time) and instead of drinking those, people just went though all my liquor instead. I really wish I would have just put all my liquor away prior to the party (Alex put them out in the first place, I wasn't intending on doing so at all really, but I wanted something there for the people who didn't like beer). The problem with this is that I spent a good sum of money on the kegs, which have to go back Tuesday, not to mention they go bad after a few days unlike the liquor. Which brings me to my third point.
Throwing a party is never cheap, and to expect to make back most of your money is a pretty foolish notion to begin with. I was feeling particularly generous though, and wanted people to have an enjoyable time so I got two of the best beers on the market, one light and one dark so that people could choose what they liked better. These two cost about $200 total. The sad thing is, if most people dropped $2-4 in the donation jar, the kegs would be almost fully paid for. However, at the end of the night when I took the basket down, there was a $5 (thanks to whoever gave that ^^) a $1 and a quarter. As I said, to expect even half the people who stop by to contribute would be a rather foolish notion, but I'd certainly hope more than presumably 2 people would drop of at least -something- Especially since people were more than happy to drain off 3/4ths of my liquor while the kegs were both still more than stocked by the end of the night.
Most parties in the past have not resulted in much for donations either (still 15x what I got tonight), but at least in those cases there tended to be a few extra liquor bottles left over from people who chose to bring alcohol instead of donating. No such bottles at this one, and practically no donations either. I guess most people just felt like leeching.
I do have to thank my roomate Matt, who donated a considerable amount, especially since I kind of screwed him over with the party planning earlier, and he even paid for most of the non-alcohol related supplies needed for the party. That and Aaron, who did bring a sizeable amount of preped food for the grilling, which was indeed quite tasty.
Overall though, that was probably the worst of the dozen or so parties I've thrown in the past. I don't think I'll be throwing any more while I'm in college. Maybe I should stop following my general policy of leaving a decent donation or at least stop bringing over a considerable amount of alcohol when I go to other peoples parties as well.
If anyone in STS wants to try another attempt at a work party, or even just an Azumi screening, let me know. I sure won't be.