terrshee's Diaryland Diary

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Guest Lists, Argh!

The agonizing begins. I'm planning a birthday party for my 50th (is that possible?). After giving the matter a lot of thought, I've decided to host a small dinner party at my favorite restaurant in downtown DC.

The problem is that with a limited budget, who do I invite? When I started thinking about a party, I sat down and made a list of everyone with whom I'd like to share my 0.5 Century Party. I came up with over 60 people (and this didn't necessarily include Significant Others).

I'm really worrying about how to pare the list down to the 15-20 people who mean the most to me. How can you make that sort of decision? I'm fussing over whose feelings are going to get hurt if I leave them out. I'm fussing over if I should take the risk of inviting some more geographically distant people because I want them to know I'd love them to be there, but I sure they can't come, but what if they do? There are people who invited me to their weddings when I never expected it, and when they has only so many seats, but honored me with one of them. There are people who have shown me nothing but kindness and affection over the years, but who are not necessarily the closest to me. There are people for whom I have less affection, but for whom I also want to acknowledge their deep influence on my life. Argh! No wonder brides go insane planning weddings. This is bad enough when it is just me!

Well, I'll sort it out in the end. I'm a good organizer, and I hope I have the honesty with myself to select the guest list for the best reasons. And, frankly, I should give people more credit. Most of us understand that not everyone gets to play all the time, and that not being invited doesn't necessarily mean not being wanted. As I've said more than once, we are adults and we have to make choices.

6:47 a.m. - 2004-11-27
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