Party Planning

I guess I blew the posting every day for a month thing considering I haven’t blogged in a week. Damnit! And I was doing so well. I’m almost tempted to try and catch up, just to know I can do it.

A friend of mine is turning 50 soon and her husband asked me to help decorate the party place with one exception. I’m not allowed to use the ubiquitous black 50 decorations and requested that no age-related gag gifts be included.

I can do that. Personally, I don’t understand why anyone WOULD decorate with that crap for a friend. Who wants to be reminded of their age in a fashion that suggests decay and uses the traditional (by our standards) colors associated with death? Gee, thanks!

I’ve figured out the colors, based on my friends home town and have ordered her cake and now I’m hunting some centerpiece ideas. When I started telling some of the other party-goers my ideas they were stunned by a few things:

1. I wasn’t going to use the black 50 decorations. (wtf?)

2. I had put together an internal plan and went to the venue to check out my ideas. (doesn’t everyone?)

3. I’d gone to the band website to make sure the played the stuff she likes and to get an idea of their sound/flavor to see if I could “use” them in some way. (um, wouldn’t you?)

4. I was making stuff by hand. (duh…)

5. I was organized. (shaking my head)

This may seem as though I’m being a bit arrogant, but let me assure you that I’m just FLUMMOXED that people don’t actually plan. I always wondered why party planning was an actual job, but this just demonstrates for me that it’s a needed profession. And being organized is not as common as I assumed. I really don’t understand how anyone gets anything done if figuring out balloons, tablecloths and streamers is really that difficult for them to imagine.

Anywho, whatever the deal is for anyone else, I like to plan with the person in mind and what they would like and how I’d feel if someone were planning an event for me. Maybe that’s what confuses me so much. I like to think that everyone works this way and I short circuit when I find out that it’s not as common as I believed. While I’m not willing to give up my optimistic viewpoint ever, I also have to remember that it’s ok to be this way and it’s ok for others to not be this way.

Now, back to the details… :0)