board game party

Spent much of yesterday at Reid's and Luisa's board game party. I had just as much fun wandering around the house to see what games people were playing as I did playing games myself. Between games, some opted to hang out in the kitchen or living room for a snack and to chat, or check out the other games going on.

This is my favourite kind of party, with the focus being on a particular kind of activity (games, filking, watergun fights, whatever) rather than just wandering around and chitchatting. I can have fun at the latter, of course, but tend to get restless and/or craving solitude after a couple hours unless it's a small group of people I really like.

Could be an age thing; I've noticed I tend to dislike the "mix and mingle in a crowded space" type of gathering more and more over the years, especially if it's a formal setting. But I've found that my tolerance for crowds has decreased in informal settings as well.



Conversations I hate/avoid at parties:

- The "so what do you do for a living" conversation with someone you know is only asking you for the sake of having something to talk about rather than any genuine interest. Yes, I know it's something to talk about. But for throwaway conversation topics, I'd rather opt to talk about something not as important to me.

- Politics

- Talking about my novel-writing with people who don't take children's writing seriously ("Oh you write novels for young people? You know, I've been thinking about writing a children's book myself, as practice for writing a REAL book, you know.")





Reid and Luisa always throw such great parties, at least from my "ideal party" perspective. Very laid-back, lots of pockets of interesting activities and conversation going on at any given time throughout the house. And always opportunities for a break for when I'm starting to feel the need for a brief respite from constant activity and conversation, especially later in the evening: I took a nap in an empty bedroom partway through the night, and also watched Lilo and Stitch in the living room with a few of the kids at another point in the evening.

Filk conventions are another example of my ideal party, except they last an entire weekend. :-) As in other crowded gatherings, however, I find that I do have to retreat to the relative peace and quiet of my hotel room from time to time during the weekend to avoid "con overload". When Urban Tapestry are guests at a convention, Allison, Jodi and I spell each other off, one of the advantages of being in a group.





But back to the board games party yesterday: games included (pardon my spelling): Ra, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Citadels, Puerto Rico, Labyrinth, Tigris and Euphraites; I'm sure there were others as well. Jeff and I ended up leaving around 2:30 a.m.

Many thanks to Reid and Luisa for hosting the party! Here's Reid's journal entry about the party (with photos).





Links/News:

Post your New Year's Resolutions here.

Post your predictions for 2003 here.

Three years ago, people predicted that the "Y2K problem" wouldn't really be a problem.

Four years ago, I got a free t-shirt from Amazon.

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Today's Blatherpics:

From yesterday's board games party at Reid's and Luisa's. Reid took the photo with me in it.