What could happen? So we're

What could happen?
So we're having a little party tonight. It being the start of the holiday season, we thought we would get ours in and out of the way early. Besides, every weekend from now until January is already spoken for. It's not really a "holiday" party per se. We have no tree yet, there's not a single ornament to be found around here and I refuse to put on any Christmas music. It's still November fer pete's sake and I'm just not ready to go there yet. But party we will. We're expecting at least 40 people plus their guests.

There are three key ingredients to a successful party.

Numero Uno) Food and Beverage.
Ya gotta have plenty of booze with this crowd. We once underestimated their capacity and were scrambling to get ice and vodka at 1:00 in the morning. Never again. Better to have too much than not enough. We have a second standard size fridge in the garage. We kept it when we updated the kitchen appliances for just this type of situation. It's usually unplugged but it's extremely handy when entertaining, provided that it does its job and keeps things cold. Which it doesn't now. Old faithful gave up the ghost last night. I discovered this after loading it with three 20 lb. bags of ice in the freezer and a case of beer, several bottles of wine and vodka. Not to mention the food platters I was going to put in there today. Hmum. Okay. Improvise. The platters should be interesting. I'm sure we'll find a way to share shelf space with the leftover turkey, stuffing, potatoes, et al.

Numero Dos) Music.
The right mix is key. Early in the evening, people want to be able to converse but you don't want to put them to sleep. As the night wears on, and folks are getting well lubricated, there will probably be dancing. I burned some new CDs for the party. A few fun mixes. I like to put them on shuffle so I never have to worry about changing disks. I thought I would do a little dry run last night. Just into the third song, the CD player died: the dreaded "n0 dIsk" display even though I know there are 5 disks in there. I tried a little percussive maintenance (purposeful pounding on the top of the player) to no avail. Guess I'm going to make a little trip to Rocky's Pawn Shop this morning to pick out someone else's "crack attack, I got no rent money, it's not stolen officer" CD player to get us through the party.

Numero Tres) A fun group of people.
Now I know we've invited a great crowd, but I have no idea who is and is not coming. I've not heard back from many people though I know they are in town and they always come to our parties and bring guests. We always end up with about 20 more people than we invited. Unfortunately, folks around here have a bad habit of not RSVPing.

Around 8:30 I'm going to have a panic attack that no one is going to show up. AND then there's that awful 30 minute period just before people are supposed to arrive when you are all dressed, the house is clean, everything is laid out - everything is set to go. And you have nothing to do but wait. Drum your fingers. Wander around. Wait. Taste the dip for the 5th time. Double check the lighting. Wait. Rearrange the bar ware. Re-stack the napkins. Wait. Then the first guests arrive and before you know it there are too many people and the cat has gotten into the cheese and someone is asking you where they could find more tonic and you've lost your cigarettes and there's no toilet paper and it starts raining in the fucking desert.

Now that's a party!