party day
Mrs. Superhero and I are hosting a cook out for the doc students in our department today. Really the purpose is to welcome the new students and make them feel like they have some allies before classes start. Apparently I worry about things like that. Anyway, the party is at my house, which is fine, because I love to throw parties. Somehow the rsvp list has reached 62 people. Yeah, 62. 13 was just too many when we had Passover Seder this past spring. So yeah, people will have to stay outside, weather be damned.
Anyway, I’m excited for it. Mrs. Superhero and I have been planning for a few weeks now. She had the presence of mind to ask the department for money, which means that the bulk of our groceries were paid for. She is also in charge of name tags and family photos, the latter of which we are going to use for an academic family tree. Right now I should be cleaning the house, but after getting up early to do yardwork before the heat hit I am feeling lazy. And a little overwhelmed. What does a party of 62 people look like? Especially in my little house and yard? Will we have enough food, and beer? Will people mingle?
Parties are weird because I always really want to throw them, but when they are over I can never really remember what happened. I could never really tell you if I had fun, because it always seems like such a whirlwind of doing hostessy things. Maybe I like to throw them because then I don’t have to do awkward small talk as much, I can always run off to the next thing or task. Who knows. This party isn’t for me though, it’s really for the new students. I remember how miserable it was my first year, moving into a new place, not really knowing anyone, having so many doubts and fears about school and research and what I was supposed to be doing. I am just hoping to alleviate that for some of these folks, at least a little bit.
