18...Who will you be in 2023?

Eldest is 18. Years. 18.
Still can't get that fully integrated into my consciousness. Regardless of truth.
And, she wanted to have a party. With food, and cake and games. That's cool, isn't it? I asked her about the birthday parties she usually attends. "What do you do?" She said; "food, movies, sitting around talking, hanging out." So, part of me worried that "pin the tail on the donkey" type parties would be frowned upon by the invited guests. Some of whom were ill-prepared for a Cowfeathers style birthday party, having never been to one before. And, it is true that the newbies were a little unsure of how to proceed when confronted with being tossed into a game. But, each one quickly assimilated and got into the spirit of the thing. In a way we had two parties, as the first set of guests had to leave about half way through, and another set of guests arrived.

Eldest chose the theme (remember they do love their theme parties!)  of "In 2023, who will you be?" When you are 16-18 years old, the next ten years are gonna be a doozie of a decade. So many huge life changers can come along. Like no other decade of your life, 10 years can be colossal. So, it is an interesting question to pose. The guests tried to answer this question by coming as who they thought they might be in 2023. We had a librarian (engaged), a surgeon, a professional hockey wife (I assume that means married, but maybe it just means a serial marrier of professional hockey players?) a teacher, a permanent college student, a swim coach, and several dudes show up for the festivities. As they arrived we played the tried and true "Who am I" game. Only, this is an older crowd, so I made it a bit tougher. Instead of just a famous person like "President Obama" on their back, they got a potential outcome for 10 years down the road. Options like "Artist, lives in Paris, in a long distance relationship" or, "Single, works on Wall Street, has a pet fish". Friends, some of you were there. I had "Lives in Africa and Miami, teaches Yoga, has a PhD." and "Mother of 4, professional photographer, loves 'Il Divo'." I even had "Speaks Japanese, works for beer distributor, wants to be a blacksmith". You know who you are! The guests had to ask only "yes or no" questions to come up with these answers. It took a while but they eventually got them. Including "Immigrant smuggler, unknown address, lives in a van."

Here, the first guests try to figure out "Who they are"....

Food is important at any party. To fit with her theme, Eldest chose University as the basis for her choices...well, we kind of made choices and fit that to Universities, but it worked.

There was a University to correspond with each dish. For instance, she served Drost Family Favorite- poppyseed chicken as the representative for the South Carolina Game Cocks... and since poppyseed chicken is served over rice, there was a Rice bowl of rice. Get it? Buckeyes from Ohio State, pecan turtles from Maryland Terrapins, Gator nuggets (taste like chicken) and Mustang sauce(horseradish sauce).

 So, Nebraska, UC Santa Cruz, the Razorbacks, Wisconsin, Oregon Ducks, the Crimson Tide....the Mean Green from North Texas...

 

 

Where to begin?

 

 

Dinner in the sunshine.

 Librarian, surgeon, teacher, hockey wife, two dudes.

Cake.

 They filled out blanks in a "Letter to Me in 2023". These, we sealed and put away to be mailed (hopefully) back to them in 10 years. Should be fun to read about who you were 10 years ago, and who you thought you'd be in 2023.

There were several team games, like "Mascot Match" and "What's the Degree?" (Who knew you could be proud of earning your "S.T.D.") But the favorite team game was "Future Feud!" The teams answered survey questions that pertained to their future, like "Forbes survey, top 12 answers on the board, question is 'What jobs have the highest satisfaction'."

They played until team Bachelors beat team Masters, and then the lightning round for extra points. (Instead of money. We didn't give away any money.)

The party ended, as it so often does, with a game of Candystop! Our resident Librarian chose the designated "stop" piece right off the bat in the first round. So for the second round, Julia stood by for support, and the players arranged the candy to help her know which one not to choose (thus the arrow).  Well played, 18. Well played.