This is the first time I have tried to organize a big party for myself. I split it into two celebrations - one in Waterloo and one in Toronto - because many of my friends live in Toronto or were in Toronto for reading week.

You have no idea how stressful this was! I took a simple idea (dinner and clubbing) and blew it way out of proportion. The Waterloo party was relatively straight forward, but the Toronto party was a disaster in the making.

I was worried about too many people showing up, not enough people showing up, not getting a table at the restaurant, guests being uncomfortable. To make a reservation at a restaurant downtown Toronto you need to plan a few weeks ahead so my waiting until one week before just added kindling to the fire. Eventually I decided on Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and Lotus Nite Club for clubbing. I am so neurotic I even learned some php to make a website to track confirmations!

I was relating my fears about the party to someone last week and she asked "What's the worst case scenario that could happen?" After thinking about it and putting things in a rational perspective, my anxiety level dropped off and I was able to calm down.

Had I a greater imagination I would have maintained my anxiety level because my "worst case" did not include the clubbing venue being shut down!! After receiving no confirmation from my voicemails about the guest list for the club, I sent emails to all the addresses on their (still active) website. On the day of the party, a couple hours before dinner, I got an email from one of the addresses saying:

"The website is not accessable [sic] to change the emails but Last i heard Lotus shut down a few weeks ago."

After some panic, beer, and deliberation, I decided we would re-route to G-Spot. It would be generic and popular enough to keep everyone satisfied. We eventually got to the right area, but for some reason could not find the club. It did not take long to find that reason. It was shut down too!!

What luck. Fortunately my guests had cooler heads than I did and we wound up at System Soundbar. I guess the experience would not have been quite as memorable had everything run smoothly =)

Despite the anxiety and dual-catastrophic-clubbing-failure, I had a blast. Again, thanks everyone! Here are photos of the Friday party. When I track down some photos of the Saturday party, I will upload them.