party! (and my partyin' past)

I'm throwing myself a birthday party tonight.

I always kind of wish I had someone to throw the party for me, or someone to have the party with. For some reason, I always feel a little pathetic, throwing it for myself. But I had to soldier on, because I have a long and illustrious history of birthday parties:

In grad school, I had huge blowouts my last two years, which also doubled as "welcome back to school" jams.

The three years I spent in Sleepy Hamlet I always had joint parties with a couple of my friends, who have birthdays within ten days of mine.

Last year, I threw together a last-minute thing...with disasterous results.

This year, things are going much more smoothly. I did an e-vite, for one thing, which was brilliant. I reserved some space at a trendy SoHo bar, and one of my dear friends is buying me a cake, or cupcakes (whatever the bakery has). I had to promise the bar that I would buy $100 worth of drinks (and give them my credit card number), but I think we should be able to handle that one.

So it should be good times. I'll give you a full report tomorrow...