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The Satirical Grown-Up Party I threw at my house last night wasn’t in celebration of my birthday. (I was a little surprised that two of my friends greeted me with a “happy birthday” when they got to my place–considering that they had attended my 21st joint bash last March. ) It was a part two to Kristel’s Pearl Girl Picnic last December (where my friends and I went to school in frilly white dresses and had a wine and cheese picnic at a field in campus) except a little more specific and gender-neutral. The occasion? Well, no real occasion in the Hallmark greeting card sense. I really just wanted to spend time and have silly fun with my friends from college and friends from work at one place and one time.

Let the snootiness begin!

The idea behind the Satirical Grown-Up Party is this. I realized that I’ve never planned a party at home before. Since my friends and I are already legal adults everywhere, it seems fitting that my first party should be a snooty grown-up party, a satire of adult life where we’d discuss our business ventures, the ex-wives of our husbands, and our messy divorces with bored faces, up-turned noses, and glasses of red wine in our hands. When I was a kid, grown-ups always struck me as strange creatures who were well-dressed, well-mannered, and extremely bored with their lives. I suppose that’s why I went through a lot of angst after graduating from college; I lived in dread that I would turn into a boring grown-up myself.

I need some fine wine
and you, you need to be nicer

Everyone was game enough to be in theme and show up in dresses (the girls), shiny pants, shinier leather shoes, and polo shirts (the guys). Of course a good chunk of my friends were fashionably late and missed the snooty indoor dinner of cold cuts, pasta, cheese, and wine. They did, however, make it just in time for the part where we were obliterating the wine at the garage. Bunch of alcoholics.

Sobering up for the camera

People pretty much dropped the satire at that point and started guzzling down wine the way kids our age should – messily, noisily, and happily. Girls started camwhoring like mad and chasing the token gay guy, trying to turn him straight. The garage was ringing with alcohol-infused, brain-breaking discussions on gout, the availability of ponies as presents from daddies to their grown daughters, and whether or not a guy who’s nice enough to remove a guy friend’s clothes after the latter passes out after a night of drinking makes the former gay, bisexual, or just an extremely thoughtful friend. Everyone’s low-batt meters started blinking sometime 2 or 3 am, and apparently some interesting things occurred in the guest room while I was spending the wee hours of the morning trying to balance umbrellas and monobloc chairs on the palm of my hand. Don’t ask.

The morning after

I thought my hostess duties were mercifully over by the time I crawled into bed around 5 am, thinking that everyone would be dead til late in the morning after all that booze. Oh boy was I wrong. An hour and a half later, my mom was knocking at my bedroom door, telling me that my friends were already up and in need of caffiene. I burrowed myself deep into my comforter and mumbled something about how they’re perfectly capable of making their own bloody coffee. But then Responsible Grown-Up Instincts kicked in and I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and into the kitchen. I had forgotten this tiny detail about hosting parties at home – you gotta take care of your guests the morning after and try to deal with surprise drama as best as you can.

Despite the lack of sleep, minor accidents that involved a broken pot and a broken dish, and my having to clean up the garage at 5 am, I had a great time at the Satirical Grown-Up Party. I’m already planning next month’s gathering in my head and the theme in itself should make the whole party a very interesting affair. I’m really, really looking forward to it.

More photos of the Satirical Grown-Up Party here. Thanks to everyone who came! Friendship over to those who can’t make it to the next one.