Life - My Personal Sociology of Parties

[Disclaimer: This is written on the advice of a book I'm reading, that talks of forcing yourself to write, even if you don't think you have anything interesting write. It almost strays into my older, icky blog-writing style where the posts were almost journal entries. That is all.]

I can't decide. Sometimes I arrive at a party, and immediately begin jumping around like crazy. Other times, I must acclimate and only begin dancing after 45 minutes to an hour in. Yet, by the time the party ends, I'm super hyper and ready to go. For me, there's more to a party than just showing up and dancing. First, I see who's there. Where are the different people, with whom are they gathered, and where is the food? I must also set up a base camp, from where I can between the different groups. Ideally, I merely set up my stuff and go to the party. However, many times I find myself sitting around too long. For instance, at the recent Dance Marathon, I had the most difficult time actually starting to dance. (By dance, I mean jumping around and flailing my arms in a semi-rhythmic manner.) Once I actually broke into dancing, it was just a matter of dancing for a while, resting and talking, and then going back; the whole process repeats until the end of the party, mostly.

For non-dance parties, I have a better time. It's just a matter of jumping from different groups. As a freshman, I tried to get to know different people by staying longer at the dinning hall and jumping each time the group I was with left. From what I can tell, it worked out fairly well: many people on campus still shout "Xander!!!" if they see me. Sometimes I find myself thinking "How do I know you?" But that's beside the point. I think this is what I do at non-dance parties; yet I cannot remember a recent non-dance party to which I have been recently. Hmmm...

Well, to sum up this overlong, unnecessarily personal article, it's all about a good starting point. From that starting point, then I work my way around the building, saying the necessary "hellos" and "how's life"s. Then its just a matter of dancing until it's over.