How to Throw an Epic Christmas Party

Now I'm no expert on anything, but I do know how to plan and decorate for an event or party like it's nobody's business.

But that is not to say that my parties are at all successful or fun. Because, I'll be quite honest, you need friends (or more people--even a damn hobo off the street will do) in order to make said parties a success or at all entertaining. But ya gotta give me some credit for at least trying. Okay?

For Halloween, I had a total of 5 people at my "party." Those 5 people will lie to you and tell you they "still had fun." So maybe I should take that and run with it and then lie to you and tell you it was a great party. But I'll be damned if I don't tell you that my house looked FABULOUS for such a shitty party. (I wish I had some actual good pictures to show you of the decor, but I took about 3 pictures in total that night...)

But for Christmas, I am determined to make my party much better in terms of entertainment, as well as decoration, as well as number of people.

Every year on the 22nd of December, I plan a party for my friends from high school for Christmas. We eat, play games, drink, laugh, exchange gifts, catch up, etc. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy their company. We are all so busy the rest of the year, but we take this one evening each year to get together and celebrate the holidays. Usually we have the party at my friend Katie's house, but this year it's at my house. So now I'm obviously planning and decorating up a storm in preparation.

Although I cannot guarantee you will actually have an epic party for the holidays, I can guarantee that you will at least have fun preparing for a party for the holidays, and you might consider it epic no matter what your guests may say at the end of the night.

I have come up with a list of things for you to make/do for your party so that you can stress less during this oh-so-stressful holiday season. Here ya go:

- Invitations. Though these are not all that important, it's still fun to make one or just shoot out a colorful email with date, time and address. To save paper and to save having to obtain everyone's address, I made a cute little invite online (minted.com) and took a screenshot of the final product instead of actually buying it, then cropped and edited the screenshot and VOILA! My beautiful Christmas party invitation with all the information needed for guests. I then made a Facebook event and placed this invitation as the "event photo" and now everyone can see it in all its glory. Seriously, don't spend money or waste paper on party invitations anymore, when you can do this! Or you can always make your own special one with Microsoft Word or Publisher or Adobe Photoshop or whatever it is you decide you're good at and you like using to make creative stuff. (If you're feeling extra festive, you can go to dafont.com and download some sweet fonts for free!)

- Make a list and check it twice. You can get some great ideas for a Christmas party from a multitude of sources. This blog post is one, obviously. But Pinterest has wonderful ideas as far as food and games and decor go (which are all things I will get into in a bit!). I, myself, have dedicated an entire board (made up of 45 pins!) on Pinterest to Christmas party ideas, which you can find here. Once you have some ideas, start making a To-Do list, a grocery list, a shopping list, whatever kind of list you deem necessary to help prepare yourself (or remind yourself) of certain aspects of your party.

#FABULOUS

- Decorations. If you want your party to look absolutely FABULOUS (see .gif), you gotta go big with the decor. So, green and red EVERYTHING. Streamers, lights, plates, napkins, cups, banners, you name it. You can get a ton of your decorations for free (and for your personal use only) via printables on the intrawebz. Just Google "Free Christmas Printables." See what comes up. If that doesn't work, go to the Dollar Store and go crazy (but not too crazy, you have other things to do and buy and prepare for). Or, if you're the more Do-It-Yourself kinda person, break out the markers and poster board and paper and whatever else you need to get creative. Whatever route you choose, have fun with it. And don't forget - if you've already got the Christmas tree, you're pretty much golden from there.

- Games. There are a ton of games out there that you can play at any type of party, so I will give you some fun ideas. Any kind of board game or boxed game will do (although Monopoly takes forever and can often get a bit heated between friends and family), but my favorites are Pictionary, Scribblish, Mad Gab, Taboo, and Scattergories. Card games are beyond fun, too: Spoons, Animal, War, or other card game such as Cards Against Humanity or Apples to Apples. Battle of the Sexes and trivia games are also great party games. Or! Make your own! Click here for ideas. (Side note: some drinking games may also be acceptable and/or fun!)

- Food. The most important of all the party ideas. Because who doesn't love to eat?! Get festive and decorative! Bake cookies, cupcakes, cakes, other fun desserts. Buy candy, appetizers, dinner. Go big or go home, man. There are so many clever and creative food ideas for Christmas. Like these adorable reindeer cupcakes made out of frosting, pretzels, chocolate wafers and M&M's!

- Hot cocoa bar. This is my favorite idea ever. I'm totally having one at my party in less than 2 weeks. Boil a whole lotta hot water, put out a bowl of regular ol' hot cocoa mix (or feel free to make your own or buy some fun flavors!), and let your guests go to town. Don't forget the fixin's: marshmallows, chocolate chips, whipped cream, candy canes, chocolate and caramel syrups, you name it! There's so much tasty stuff you can put in a small cup of hot chocolate. This hot cocoa bar is the perfect way for guests to warm up on a snowy and chilly winter night. Make it fancy or keep it simple, but make sure you and your guests make use of it (which I'm sure you/they will if it's cold enough out!), and enjoy it.

- Music. There's so much Christmas music out there - check out Spotify or Pandora or your local radio station for holiday tunes. Don't be a Grinch - play some Frank Sinatra or Mariah Carey (whatever's more your speed) and get dancin'!

- Movies. There's also a ton of Christmas movies and shows out there just waiting to be watched by you! So, in case you get extra bored at your party, power up the TV and watch some Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. You seriously can't go wrong. And if you disagree with me, I'll just tell you straight up: you're wrong, sir Ebenezer.

- Gifting. The last few years my friends and I have done a "grab bag." I'm terrible at explaining things, so here's a link to fill you in on what that even means: Grab Bag E-How. This year we're doing Secret Santa: a Western Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they anonymously give a gift. Or just give a small gift to everyone! It's completely up to you, of course. But grab bag and Secret Santa are better for your wallet! So just a heads up.

There you have it, folks. Enjoy all your holiday festivities, and especially enjoy your holiday party. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everybody!

How to Survive Finals Week

Finals are here, and so is the end of your life.

Of course I'm only half kidding. Your social life is on hold, sure, but it's certainly not the end of your life. At least I sure hope not.

So, have you been studying? Have you been keeping up with that final paper? Of course not! Why would you? Why make things easy for yourself when you can procrastinate the hell out of those finals and do anything else instead? Am I right? Or am I right?

Because I'm 110% with you on this (I have yet to pick up a pen, notebook or book at all related to any of my classes this semester), I thought maybe I'd try and help you out a bit. Two noggins are better than one, no?

I don't have all the answers to your problems, nor do I have all the answers to those multiple choice questions on your biology final, nor can you have an antennae under your hat with a guy giving you all the answers through a walkie talkie (Spongebob anyone?). But I can give you some advice. You may find it all entirely useless and stupid, but hey, I'm trying here, okay?

There are three important steps when it comes to finals and finals' week. These are:

1. PREPARATION.
2. STUDYING.
3. CELEBRATION.

Now that you're aware of the three major stages of finals (there will be a final on all of this material at the end of this blog post), let's explore these steps in much further depth. Because, yes, there's more to everything than meets the eye. 

So now it's time to crack down on that final paper; and time to crack down on studying for that final exam you've been dreading.

Whether you're 3 pages in, or you've spent all that time doing this (look to your left), I'll give you some help. Follow these guidelines and you'll at least be a little better off than you were before. We can only hope.

First, you gotta prepare for the grueling study-time (STEP 1: PREPARATION). Here are some (obvious) ideas to help get you prepared:

- Put all irrelevant electronics away. This mainly means your phone... You shouldn't be texting while you should be studying or writing that damn paper. If you absolutely need a computer, fine, but you should only have PowerPoint or Word or whatever else you absolutely NEED open on said computer. If you think the internet (Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, whatever else) will be a terrible distraction, try going about your paper or whatever it is you're doing on the computer the old-fashioned way. Break out the pen and paper and get to writing. Calculators may be necessary, but make sure you're not fooling around on it and instead doing what you should be doing on it.

- Find a quiet place. Whether some small nook or cranny in your house or nearby library, make sure there's no noise distractions. Maybe you're one to put in some earphones and listen to some music-- make sure it's not distracting; instrumental music might be best for some. But aside from that, make sure there's little to no noise pollution surrounding you. -- I am hesitant to put "comfy" in with this tip... Because if you find a quiet and comfy place, you could get too comfortable and fall asleep. Which is obviously something that needs to be avoided in the case of studying for finals. But then again, if you're going to be there for a while, you don't want to be sitting on a Goddamn rock. So find something or somewhere moderately comfortable.

- CAFFEINE. Drink it. Pump it into your veins. However you may consume it, it is sometimes very necessary. So before you sit down in your quiet and semi-comfy place without any of your irrelevant electronics, grab a large cup of coffee/tea/soda and you're ready to get down to business!

So now that you're all prepared and settled in for studying - phone away, coffee in hand, sitting in a corner somewhere - your next few steps fall under the category of "actual study time" (STEP 2: STUDYING):

- Read. Books, any notes that you've taken, PowerPoints, anything at all related to your subject matter. For example -- I have an Economics final on Friday (And I'm sitting here writing this instead... Eeeeeeek!). I have my textbook, my notes, and a bunch of PowerPoint slides that my teacher lectured us with. So I'm going to basically just READ READ READ until my eyes bleed and pop out of my head. Extreme? Yes. But necessary? Yes.

- Take notes on your notes. I find that the best way for me to learn is for me to write something over and over again. So I pull out another notebook, sheet of paper, or some index cards, and I copy my notes over. After I've written each thing maybe once or twice, I read it all over again.

- Team up with a classmate or two. This is, of course, if you absolutely have to. You may be like me and completely dread group projects. Because I don't like people. Especially when we have to work together to achieve a certain goal for a certain grade. But! If you think it will help to buddy up, go for it. Maybe you'll get some helpful insight here and there. Hey, it's worth a try. So maybe you shouldn't be so negative (like me) and bash the group project thing, even if they do wind up letting you down, you should go for it anyway.

- Ask your professor. If you really have no idea what you're studying or doing (cough, cough - me and Economics), email your professor and ask if they're doing a study sesh or something similar. Which leads me to...

- If there are study sessions, GO TO THEM. Some teachers are "nice" enough to have a few classes to help you prepare for the final exam or work on your final paper. I highly suggest you go to such classes. They will help you, I promise.

Lastly, your third step: CELEBRATING! Whether or not you think you passed, as long as you gave it your all, it's time to celebrate! Get out there and PARTAYYYYY! You did it! It's over! ... Until next semester and it happens all over again! Hooray! Oh, wait.

But for now, it's not over. UGH. I KNOW. Get to work, ya bum!

Before you do, I think you probably need a little pick me up, so here's Ryan Gosling to wish you good luck (look to your right) ------------>>>>>>

And here's a slightly less attractive person to also wish you good luck.... (look below). 

Happy Finals Week!

Come Join the Existential Crisis Club!

Hello, friends.

I've come to realize that my blog pretty much sucks, but I'm also a true believer in "Practice makes perfect," so I'm going to keep 'sucking' until something good comes out of it. That sentence sounds horrific, but you catch my drift I hope.

Anyway, recently I've been having an "existential crisis" (I guess that's what I'm going to call it) and I've been feeling just generally terrible. It's a weird feeling when you begin (or continue) to question your existence, your purpose, etc. Not many people have the time or the energy to think about such things, but knowing myself and how bored I often can be, I waste my last tiny bit of energy on thoughts such as these. It's unfortunate really, but it happens. They often say the quietest people have the loudest minds. I could not fit that cliche any more than I actually do. My point is: I've been wondering what life is, where it's going, who I am, etc.

Just like Derek Zoolander, I'm having trouble finding my place in the world (Should I be a really really really ridiculously good looking male model or a coal miner?).

In all seriousness, life is tough, and I'm struggling to find out the deeper meanings in life. Maybe you're experienced something similar, maybe not. Either way, this post is for you to help you in whatever sort of way you may need help in your life. Whether life is going smoothly, or you've fallen into a deep, deep hole in the ground, we could all use a little boost every now and then. I'm hoping something in this post sparks some weird sort of inspiration or motivation and gets you thinking. Maybe you'll even find some temporary answers.

I don't have the answers to the big life questions. Liz Lemon always seems to be struggling with these issues, and no matter what age or gender or color or whatever you are (hell, you could be a damn porcupine and still have this problem), there probably is no "real" solution. I don't think we'll ever figure out the answers to any of our existential questions. No matter what you believe in, I'm sure we're all sort of going through similar trying times in attempting to figure out what it is that makes us US.

Do you know what I mean? I could be making little to no sense to you, to everyone, even to myself, but I need to write this all out and see where it takes me. But in all honesty, this could all just be "some white nonsense."

I've spent most of my morning looking up internships and careers. I'm letting you all know (and this shouldn't even be written down or said aloud to anyone until I make the ultimate decision) that I'm considering quitting school, or just not finishing. I have hated school from Day One. But I've suffered through it, despite nearly killing myself half a dozen times because of it. Maybe it's not all that awful, but I sure as hell make it out to be a miserable hell of my own. But I can't seem to help it. School (and when I say school in this context, I mainly mean college or higher education) is one of those things that I personally feel shouldn't even be a requirement in our society. I mean, no where is it written that it is, but you can't get a "great" job or "career" without some bit (or a lot of) higher education. And it sucks. Why does our society have to function that way? Some of the smartest people out there and some that I know barely made it through high school. And then once we spend a ton of time and money in school, we have to get out into the "real world," or the "adult world" and get a job, buckle down, work work work, retire, die. I realize how horribly morbid and depressing I'm making it out to be, but I'm just giving you an idea of how I've been thinking about life and school and careers and everything and how and why it makes me so effing miserable all the damn time.

Back to my thinking of quitting school, though. Even though a lot of the jobs I'm looking at require 4-year degrees, I don't care. I think I'm a smart enough, good enough HUMAN BEING to get a job or start a career that I love and that makes me happy and feel fulfilled. So take that, universe.

You may think I'm being overly "soul-searchy," or "too deep" but I don't really care, because this is how I feel and I am, for once, going to validate those feelings by telling you that they are real, and that I don't know what to do about them. Hence, this blog post. Sorry for weirding you out, if that is the case, but I need to get this all off my chest in order to possibly move on from it.

If you, too, need help in moving on from it, try writing down how you're feeling, all the questions you may have, and don't let those feelings and questions get you down. That's much much much easier said then done, as I know all too well, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you think these things, then have some sort of strange epiphany. And it lasts for about a fifth of a second, and then you go back to being what some would consider crazy.

Accept the crazy. The fact that you're thinking this much about something so deep and personal and impossibly difficult means that you're alive, you're bright enough to be thinking, your brain is functioning properly, etc. See? Lots of good stuff may come of this after all.

When all else fails, shrug it off. 

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

-- Robert Frost