Marty and I are throwing a Halloween party on October 30th from 8PM to 1AM to try and break in our new home and maybe grow closer to our coworkers and build a larger base of friends. I've run into a couple of concerns; thanks to the fact that we don't have a lot of friends in Georgia as we aren't experts at socializing/making new friends so we've mostly invited coworkers. First off, I can't seem to get an accurate head count for those planning to attend. This erks me because I'll be providing all of the good eats and it's difficult to assess if Im making enough or too much without people properly RSVPing. I have this scary feeling that only 5-10 people will show up; while that's great for a small dinner party - I'm trying to setup the house for a larger showing. I can only think of 4-5 people that will definitely attend and that includes my friend Kat from Florida that moved up here and our new neighbors who Marty works with. Hopefully they'll help out with setting up the house for the party.

I've made a list of things I plan to purchase for decorations, which is as followed: 3-4 jack-o-lanterns, dark-colored bulbs, fog machine, Halloween tunes for party & outside, cheese cloth to rip for couch, spiders, cob webs, 2 tombstones, candy, 2 fake hands, old man mask, shoes, stuff pants & shirt for corpse, bats for corners of rooms; candles, fall leaves, branches, skeleton head and ripped gauze for fireplace; cauldron with dry ice in it for dining table with food on it, witches spell-book. I plan on making 3 small appetizer trays, 2 main dishes and 3 desserts but haven't decided on what spooky recipes to use. It's fun planning for the party but I'm always terrified over the guest list. If it's going to be a small showing, I really don't have to decorate so much or purchase so much food. However, I'd hate to shorten the menu and it turn out that a bunch of folks who didn't let me know they were coming - pop in. Then I'll not only be worried about playing good host and introducing everyone to each other but also how I will manage to feed them.

The guest list is rather... interesting. We have mostly cops on Marty's end as they're military policeman in his unit, I've invited both booksellers that I work with at Barnes & Noble and my coworkers at the vehicle leasing company I work for. For some CRAZY reason, I really feel as though the three worlds will not get along with each other smoothly... I'm imagining three "gangs" within my home staring each other down as though they're alien. My B&N coworkers are all very "free-spirited", I know a couple smoke pot and the rest have no shame in drinking until they're taking off clothing and running in the streets. The soldiers that would be popping in are not drug users and although they drink, most of them are certainly not the type to drink heavily; they're also more dry and serious or carry a manly sense of humor. Finally there are my leasing company coworkers - they barely drink, don't do drugs and are rather dry in general. LeasePlan employees will most likely be the older and boring crowd. Imagine all of these people in one room together, yeah - I'm slightly worried.

So I have the concerns of 1. Not enough people showing up and 2. Those who do show up do not get along. Throwing parties was so much easier in south Florida, it seemed that ALL of my friends got along so my mind was at ease. Not to mention that my Floridian friends know how to RSVP properly for parties, not be shady and simply state "Oh, I MAY be showing up". I've never been so paranoid/concerned over throwing a bash before, I'm certainly never doing this again if it doesn't go as planned.

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