Party planning.

I am not really the kind of person who is good at planning parties. I don't give that many parties, for one, and the ones I do give are usually the casual 6-10 people dinner variety that only require that there is a 3 to 1 bottle of wine to person ratio for guaranteed success. But now that I'm doing the FRG thing, I find that I have to plan gatherings much more often and it drives me insane.

First of all, you never know how many people are actually going to attend. You can say RSVP all you want but no one listens. And for all those that do RSVP, a good 25% are going to do the opposite of what their RSVP stated and another 15% will bring an extra person or two along with them. And these days, with the big secret being out, people are less inclined to participate in unit activities anyway.

To add a new dimension of difficulty, you have FRG ladies who say they will help. But they don't mean it. Mind you, I have one to two workhorses in our company who help out all the time. But how much can you delegate when you don't know how many people or what exactly you are doing due to weather and other company work considerations? It's a conundrum. And when you do delegate, it always seems like those peripheral helpers "forget" or call the night before and say they don't want to do it anymore. 'Cause, you know, buying Costco-sized blocks of Kraft singles doesn't have quite the glamour they imagined.

In any case, we have a party tomorrow. And tomorrow, I will pick up 200 kaiser rolls and a whole mess of hot dogs, hamburgers and various accoutrements and hope for the best. The best for weather, the best for turn-out and, most importantly, no salmonella poisoning from the BBQ. Wish me luck!