How To Enjoy Your Birthday Party

It's your day. But to have a good time, you've invited friends. A lot of them. From all the different parts of your life. And then you're so worried about them having a good time, that you forget to have a good time yourself. And so next year you just have a small dinner with your closest friends. But it's not fun, and everyone else is jealous. So the year after, you have a big party again, but the same thing happens.

I know. It's not easy. Just a couple weeks ago, I had a birthday party at a local bar/restaurant. I invited a lot of people. Like 50 of them. And a lot of people showed up. I'm not bragging here, because you know that all of those people aren't just friends from one aspect of my life. Here's the breakdown:

Friends from high school.

Friends from college.

Friends from work.

New boyfriend who, thankfully, knows work people.

Friends from my improv class.

Friends of friends.

Friends whom I met through my ex who went to his college.

Friends whom I met through my ex who went to his high school.

Although my ex was not invited.

So not everyone knows everyone. But the trick is to make sure that everyone has at least two other people that they know. So invite whomever you have to to make that work.

Past that, it's just a matter of time management and a slow, but steady, amount of alcohol. Because you can't play host all night. Having start up conversations every five minutes gets old real quick. But if you get drunk (even if it's just convincing people that you're drunk), then everyone will excuse your faux paus. And try to avoid inviting people that you haven't seen in awhile, because you're going to try to appease them, and that's bad for everyone.

And obviously, this is your night, so you really do get to be as selfish as possible. So go for it, and happy birthday!