Strange Knights

On the Friday past, I hosted a strange night. This is where people are permitted to be strange, bring their own games and oddities. That was my vision for it anyway. Over the weekend, I have been mental revisiting it and considering how things happened and whether it should be repeated. The following is my retrospection of the night.

My planning left something to be desired. A glitch in the invitation e-mail meant that people had to consider what they would be doing before RSVPing but still people cautiously gave spoken notification that they would come.
I had an unrealistic start time which was impossible for two people to come on time for, and apparently unlikely for all but two others. I should have been more conservative and said 8 o'clock.

The food side of things was unfortunate. I wanted to cook strange things to suit the ends of the party but in the end it was the only "mains" dinner food that came (it was meant to be potluck). I knew at least two people would have trouble bringing food but others brought no shareable food. Two brought food for themselves and ate it while waiting for the other people to arrive. I thought that was peculiar, but then again, to wait for everyone to come would be a long wait for someone who may have arrived starving. Strange food doesn't particularly fill the stomach. A bit like unfamiliar foreign food perhaps. So maybe I should have gone a bit more productive and conventional in the kitchen or made checks to see what people were bringing.

Probably one of the things I was frustrated about is that people don't tend to share my vision for an event. That of course is not their fault, I should either inspire people with the vision, or ask them whether they should really be coming. But I tend to just want people to come.

For example, one person called to see if they could come but also added that they hadn't planned nor thought about what strange things they could do. He and another arrived with seemingly little "strange" intent. I reverted to my old habits of overcontrolling the situation, dragging one out to my bedroom to find strange things for him to wear. I couldn't help but feel how hostile I was or how persecuted he may have felt. I wind myself up for events that I organise, enjoyment is only in appreciation after the event. I even took out a little frustration on a person who called in late and said they would come if someone gave them a lift (a car had been to the Uni already to pick a person up why didn't they communicate earlier...?)

Things went along well at the start with Arvind's game which got everyone involved. From their it had its ups and downs. Hits and misses. Several people had no activities to contribute and little things came up spontaneously (or if it did, I may have killed it accidentally). I may have made the identities in Party Quirks too difficult to firstly represent and secondly to guess. Obviously I hadn't learnt the lesson of my last birthday party.

At times, I waited for someone else to contribute something. I even had a strange outburst saying something was boring when the discussion turned rather prosaic (in retrospect, many seemed rather interested). I forced the pace to continue onto things that I had planned (as I had prepared as much as I could). Maybe because of that outburst though, suddenly it seemed even harder to get any enthusiasm from any of the other guests. My idea of a David Lynch game flopped. Fortunately Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain dance worked better.

In the end, out of all the activities I had planned, I got through all but one, my personal challenge. The second to last event (an experiment) almost became that challenge though. My challenge was to submit to tickling and to see if I could refrain from reacting for 5 seconds. I thought it could be repeated through the night until I did it. I didn't raise this because I wanted to alternate between ideas from other people. Unfortunately or fortunately, my experiment at one stage got be blindfolded and suddenly everyone seemed to want to tickle or hit me. It is not that pleasant when you are blindfolded. Maybe it was their frustration or perhaps it was more light-hearted than I took it.

In the end, I was a little disappointed. Maybe my "Days" are over. I seem to annoy myself and others doing them. At least I didn't get sick (well not yet) over this one.