The 31 Party

I know that you are just dying to know how the little party thing went on Thursday.  Well lets just say that it lived up to, and possibly surpassed my expectations.  Let me tell you what happened.  OK, so Alexa and I drove up to the house at 6 which is when it was supposed to start.  There were a bunch of cars in the driveway so that, along with triple checking the house number, reconfirmed that I was, in fact, at the correct location.  (can you see where this is going...I mean, in regards to my craziness?)  I sat in the car for a few minutes deciding how to get into the house because this place (kind of like my house) has a front door, a side door where the garage and driveway are and a back door onto a porch.  What the hell?!  Who knows the appropriate door to knock on?  If you go in through the front door you might be weird or too formal, plus there were no pavers or anything leading up to it which leads me to believe that it is not to be used.  The side door is kind of strange because it goes through a garage which is usually how the family gets in but guests are different.  And going in through the back/porch door is kind of awkward too, what do you just walk into the house and say hi?  It took me like, 3 minutes to contemplate all of this.  After having a small chuckle to myself about a sign I've seen before that says 'back door friends are best' (raise your hand if you know what sign I'm talking about...that's right Katie!) and then making a mental note to jump 'get pavers to lead up to the front door' to the top of the list of things to do around the house, I saw someone walk onto the porch.  Awesome, here's my opportunity.  I get Alexa out of the car and walk onto the porch, introduce myself and then follow the lady (who ended up being someone who lived in the neighborhood but not the homeowner) into the house. 

I tried to say hi and to have a small conversation with people but really, what is there to talk about?  I don't know you and anyone who knows me knows that I literally can not talk to you if I don't know you.  Seriously.  It took me months to talk to people at work...months!  There are some people who I've known for years, you know, those people you see once every six months or so and you see them for a total of 3 hours at some one's party or something?  Anyway, I still don't feel comfortable talking to even those people, how am I supposed to have a conversation with these strangers?  Everyone else was already deep in their own conversations anyway, so Alexa and I walked around a little bit, she played in another room with the little girl who lives there while I awkwardly stood against a wall (not kidding), and we went outside so that she could go on the swing in their backyard. 

Finally, it was time for the 'buy these super cool purses' part of the party to start.  Which, of course, perfectly coincided with Alexa's usual bedtime.  Wonderful.  She ran around the room, I tried to chase her and stop her from doing crazy things like use a wooden duck as a stepping stool to climb onto a trunk (OK, so she wasn't really that bad but she did do the duck thing.  Hopefully she's still young enough to where other people think she's cute and not super annoying...hopefully.)  Regardless, trying to pick out an appropriate order (you know, I don't want to seem too cheap yet I also don't want to spend $100 that I don't have just because I got invited to this party) while chasing around an 18 month old is not my idea of fun.  I finally figured it out and we paid and left.  I said good-bye to the room and no one acknowledged me and then I said good bye to the hostess and thanked her and we drove home.  They probably all talked about me and what a bitch I am when I left, it's like high school all over again.  I had to go home and change my clothes due to the constant heart palpitations, pukey (Is that even a word?  Spellcheck says it's not but I disagree.) feeling and sweating that was going on over the previous two and a half hours.  Thank you self diagnosed social anxiety for once again reminding me why I only have a hand full of friends!  :)  (Apparently with a little paranoia thrown in there.  Have I ever told you that I used to diagnose my friends and family with my pocket DSM-IV in nursing school?  Everyone has a little crazy in them, some just more than others, but that's a whole other blog post!)  I had the purses delivered to the lady's house (instead of paying the extra $8 to have them delivered to my house...$8 to drive around the block is ridiculous!) so we will see what happens when I go to pick them up.  I really hope that they didn't all think I was a bitch because, most of the time, I don't think I am one.  But I can understand how someone can get that impression.  I kind of wanted to make a friend since we are going to be living here you know, forever.  But I guess that comes with time.  Maybe I'll make myself go to the next party too.