Competitive Party Machines

I always forget that my friends are competitive. I mean—I know we’re mostly attention whores but that has never really bothered me because it’s funny more than anything else. But the competition part doesn’t usually show itself that often.

It all started with Diana’s birthday on Friday. She decided that she wanted to do something fun and sporty and very Mid-West so she went and rented out a rink for broom ball. If you don’t know what this is—it’s a large ball (a bit bigger than a baseball but smaller than a dodge ball), broom shaped sticks and street feet on ice. (Like hockey without skates. Or pads which should really be a part of this game.)

There ended up being a large group of to play and after some slow warm up—like mastering how to walk on ice—we spilt into teams to play. Now you would think that it would be a silly and goofy game with the people involved—Benji, Joy, Kaylie, Penn, Lizzie, Johnny, Skylar, Smythee, Lola , Sophie and even Rocky but somehow Diana, Dax, Trista (Diana’s roommate) Ava and even Guy somehow brought out the fighting streak in all of us.

It became so intense at points that people were dropped via hip checks, stick trick and even slamming into each other—on purpose—which lead to some real awkward moments. I hit Skylar in the face with my stick by accident—though he was totally trying to use his stick to sweep my feet out from under me—but I hit him so hard we actually thought that I might have loosened his teeth. The is only funny because of our ‘love hate’ relationship and there were pictures taken of the moment and I have to tell myself that it is not okay to use said photo as a Christmas card.

That being said, almost everybody at some point got a bit in each other’s faces which kind of took me a back. Most of us don’t really do much athletic stuff outside of the gym and pick up games of basketball so to see my friends get so ‘into it’ was rather surprising. And even though most of us were sore the next day—we’d all play again. But not with certain people. (Ava—you know who I’m talking.)

But what’s even funnier to me is that we aren’t just completive game wise—I think we tend to be a bit aggressive when it comes to our social events too. Everyone wants to have a good party and have people come when they plan stuff and people can get their feelings pretty hurt when they plan something and no one comes.

I always forget about how that feels but the night after broom ball was Samuel’s first party in Los Angeles—at least with my friends. He had held off on his birthday because he wanted to do a huge theme shindig and I told him that I would plan it as my gift to him. He picked a theme (inappropriateness) and found a venue (the super house) so the rest was mostly up to me.

Now I have to admit I am a perfectionist. If you’ve ever been to my house or watched me shop for clothes or even heard me talk about work—if I can’t do it flawless then I’ll just do it over and over till I can. And that’s with normal circumstances and the usual faces.

But this party had me on edge for a slew of reasons; it wasn’t my place so I felt kind of tied as to what I could do and when I could do it, it was going to be a blending of both our groups of friends which could go rather strangely, and it was also the first time Samuel had ever been the draw for a party.

Now I know the boy has been around for the better part of the year but it’s still hard to know if people like you and if they care about you and not just putting up with you. This is a conversation that has come up between us at points and I was really paranoid that people wouldn’t come (It didn’t help that there were two HUGE events the same night) and that he would take it to mean that my friends weren’t at all his friends. It’s a valid concern and one that I had at the front of my mind.

That and I sometimes don’t know how to read—or describe—Samuel’s friends. They are very different from my friends, not in a bad way, and some of them are very out going and very funny and likable and then there are the others that can be very anti-social or awkward with meaning anything by it. But this can be misread as being disinterested or weird and I just didn’t want tension. Or Samuel to have to baby-sit anyone. (This does not include the few guests that he used to sleep with before dating me.)

So on the day of the party I was a bit crazy. (And sore from broom ball). It just felt like one of those days when nothing got done fast enough, that money was being spent too fast and that nothing would be finished on time. Add to this the fact that Samuel’s party was the first since the BAR left and that makes it even weird and more stuff to get around creatively. It felt like every second I was finding a new hole to plug. And it didn’t help that people showed up either a bit early or right on time. (Who does this? I guess Samuel’s friends….)

But it ended up being an amazing time. So many people came, so many great friends of both of ours just dancing and talking and meeting new people and blending together. Even though I was a bit of a mess the whole night I have many awesome memories. Dancing with Kirby and Edden outside, talking writing and philosophy with Chessa, taking fab pictures with Lola, watching Miss Kaylie with her new date, making out with Samuel ‘Bond Girl’ style to distract him while the cake got sent up, Kelly’s awesome notes on the wall of inappropriate, Teddy awesome cheese cake and even Renee and Boris pointing in some social effort. .

It showed to me that people really do care about Samuel—and me too. And while I did get too paranoid—do people like us enough to come? Will it be cool enough to get a good rep? Will I not die of embracement at meeting more exes?

It was one of my best nights in a long time. Hell—it was one of my best weekends in a long time. It’s gonna take a lot to top that. Game on kids…. Bring it….