August 22, 2007
I’m the Life of the Party . . .
ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:13 am
parties.
Don’t feel bad if I don’t come to your party. It’s not that I don’t want to be with you to celebrate. It’s that parties scare me.
People at parties act differently. They talk differently. They smile party smiles. They chat party chatter. I watch people at parties, and I see them waiting for the fun to begin. It’s intimidating. I end up like Alice in Wonderland at the Tea Party. My words seem to be in another language.
If I get there early, I’m sure the fun hasn’t happened. If I come in the middle, the fun seems to have started without me. I’m not sure how to join in. If I get there too late, the fun seems to be over.
People say, “Hey, here comes the life of the party.” I think, Uh-oh my life is now over. I’m about to do something too big or too foolish.
To me parties are more like the Serengeti than like my natural habitat. Navigating a party is much harder than a photo safari.
It works better, if I don’t call it a party. If I call it a few friends “getting together,” the pressure seems to come off. I can talk to friends without feeling that “fun responsibility.” Friends don’t expect friends to be effervescent and fun every minute, . . . except maybe at a party.
Fun is so elusive and undefinable. I don’t want to be in charge of it. Sometimes I don’t know I’ve had it until I look back long after it’s over.
I know I had fun once, but don’t ask which time it was.
Oh yeah, then that one special party happens . . . when I lose self-consciousness. Fun falls from the sky like stardust on me . . . yeah then, going back to the real world no fun at all.
I guess I pack too much into when the word parties. I wonder whether I’ll ever outgrow that.
Until then, I’ll keep thinking of them as visitng my friends who are getting together for some occasion. Then, I can have a good time and even be entertaining.
Sometimes I can be the life of the party, as long as it’s not a party.
Filed under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog |
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8 Comments to “I’m the Life of the Party . . .”

Sanne Roemen said
Oh dear Liz, sometimes it scares me to recognize so much of myself in your posts. I don’t only feel like you do at other people’s partys, I feel that way even if I would throw my own! I never celebrate my birthday.
ME Strauss said
Hi Sanne,
Lots of folks feel the same way about parties. :)
I’ve gotten to naming all parties something else for that very reason. :)
Leo said
Hi Liz,
I was invited to a party first of September yesterday. At the local gym.
My problem is that I it’s often too loud at parties and that you are always sort of supposed to go after the other sex. While I do not know how to do that. Maybe I’ll go though. Far worse is my own birthday party in September ( 50 Years of age then ).
Joanna Young said
Liz, I feel like Sanne, I thought you were writing about me!!
I don’t know if you’ll have heard the Jona Lewie song “you’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties” - that’s what reading this made me think of. Maybe we could all meet up in the kitchen somewhere sometime :-)
Joanna
ME Strauss said
There are a whole bunch of us, Joanna!
We make too much of an event like a party and get all uncomfortable about it. :)
Sanne Roemen said
Uhm… I just don’t ‘do’ parties. That’s nice and quiet. No matter what I call them I will always feel the same.
ME Strauss said
Hi Sanne,
I understand. :)
I like dinner for four at the most best of all. :)
ME Strauss said
Hi Leo!
It’s nice that you’re having a birithday, but that does present a birthday party conflict . . . Do you mark the day or do you ignore it? I saw find a sunrise some cheese and wine and some really good friends. :)