Birthday dinner 18+18 in Adventures in paradise

My birthday dinner went fairly well.

Chris and Reece both RSVP’d ‘Yes’ to attending, but neither showed up, so that was a little disappointing, but I was surprised that Ryan and Cam both said they were coming last minute.
But 8:15pm rolled around (the event started at 7pm) and neither of them were there either, so I just tried to focus on the special friends in my life who were there.

Moe, Steve, Luke, Rhys, Sheldon and my housemate Phil and his partner Ben were the attendees from 7pm. Phil asked how I was getting there and I just told him I was going to Uber it, but offered me a lift with Ben since he was picking him up anyway, so that was nice of them to offer me a lift.
They are such a cute and interesting couple, even after all this time of knowing them. They are open and were talking about sex and guys on the drive there. Ben asked if I had hooked up with anyone who would be attending the party and I said, “No”, but then had to correct myself and said, “Oh wait, one. I’ll let you guys guess which one.” Haha.

Sasquatch was an okay place. It was small, but we had a table reserved. The reviews had said the staff were happy, but the staff did not look happy at all when we were there haha. A saving grace was that one of the bartenders was a cute twink, so yay for that.
The absolute worst part about trying to organize an event is people RSVP’ing last-minute or not bothering at all, so I’d invited I think about 25, booked for 15, and 9 ended up showing up, including Ryan and Cam, who were just very late haha. It was lovely of Sheldon to attend, and he said his boyfriend was going to as well, but ended up feeling sick so couldn’t come.
My cough managed to hold off for most of the night, thank God, but it’s still lingering. I only had to clear my throat a few times.
I ordered a kilo of wings and demolished it all. I was so damn tired from work earlier in the day too, and had anxiety riding quite high in the lead-up to the event, which I knew would happen. I just kept trying to tell myself, “It’s only a dinner,” but then my mind kept telling me that I’d suck at conversation and I was feeling pretty nervous on the drive there.

Thankfully my friends are amazing, and quite vocal lol. I just had to sit and listen a lot, even though it was my birthday event haha. I sat at the head of the table and Steve was one side of me and Moe was the other. There was another table celebrating a party so it was a little bit loud inside, but not too bad. I would have liked to sit outside, but I’m glad they reserved us inside because the smokey air was still quite bad yesterday, and I don’t think me breathing it in would have helped much.
Moe and Steve both bought me socks as a present haha - such an older-male present to give. but socks are always very useful, so I’m not complaining at all. Steve’s had pics of cats and Moe’s was in honour of my trip to China, and had the pics of “Mr Sparkle” when Homer found his image on a product in Japan haha. Luke and Rhys had gotten me a card with a $50 gift voucher inside, which I didn’t even realize until I got home - how rude of me. And Steve covered me meal and a cocktail so that was nice of him. But I was just thankful for the company of everyone who made it.

My friends thought that Phil and Ben were down to Earth, so that’s nice. Being at the head of the table, I couldn’t hear everyone’s conversations at once, so I’m glad people found things to talk about up the other end. With 10 people including me, we weren’t too far apart and Sheldon just had to speak a bit louder whenever he wanted to talk directly to me. Ben thought Sheldon was very cute, which is no surprise. Everyone thinks Sheldon is cute.
People left gradually throughout the evening, as they do and we were down to just me, Sheldon, Ryan and Cam, who kept shuffling up the table haha. It was so good to see Ryan and Cam back together and getting along so well. They were living in Bartley Street when I first moved in there forever ago now, and have since lived together but moved out and seem to hardly hang out anymore. I was like, “But I thought you guys were best friends!” and Ryan had me laughing when he was giving me a sliced-hand movement across his throat from behind Cam as though to tell me to shut up. I totally knew he was kidding though, as they were laughing their ass’ off all night. I said to Ryan, “Oh so did you guys fall apart when you ditched acting for improv?” which got the biggest laugh of the night.

When Sheldon had to go, the rest of us bailed too. I was again just going to catch an Uber home and hugged everyone goodbye, as I had to use the restroom, but when I emerged, Ryan and Cam were still outside talking and offered me a lift home. So nice! We were laughing at Cam’s car making noises and I asked if Cam’s car had a name and Ryan piped up, “Farty McFartFace” - so stupid but hilarious and I think I laughed the whole way home.

So yeah, I dunno, the night could have gone better had more people turned up who said they were going to, but I know what it’s like with anxiety and such and maybe that happened with them, or maybe they thought the venue was at the shopping centre up the road - I can only speculate. But I just think about how different people can change a whole dynamic of how an event goes, you know? Conversations differ, different people catch-up, butterfly-effect and all that jazz. But it certainly wasn’t a disaster and the food was good.

I saw Phil briefly this morning. I’d woken up to another coughing attack so was up at 6am and ended up watching a movie on Netflix that Steve was going on about at my event the night before, called “Falling In Love” - I thought it was stupid and fell asleep on the lounge haha and woke up to our phone ringing. Phil asked if I was expecting anyone and I said it was probably the Google Home’s being delivered, which it was, so I put on clothes and went down and signed for them. Phil said he thought my friends were cool, so that was nice. He sounded groggy, so I asked if he had a big night, but turns out he wasn’t out long at all and was home before I was! It’s still weird for me having a conversation with Phil while he stands there naked. I’m trying to be polite by trying to maintain eye contact with his eyes lol. We usually don’t talk for long though. I think we’re both pretty quiet, he’s just more confident.

I’ve just been playing around with one of the Google Home’s tonight. Like it’s a cool gadget but that’s about all it really is. It’s only small, but I’m still trying to decide where the best spot for it is in this small apartment. I’ve set it up to cycle through art-y photos at the moment but I can change that to personal or other ones if I want. I was thinking I should put porn on there for when Phil gets home lol. It’s kinda handy to just ask it recipe steps or where nearby places are, so to play music or even Netflix if you really wanted to. If I ever bought smart lights and such it could control those too. I sent Phil an email so he can access it too and change what he likes etc. Gotta play around with it a bit. I still have to set up the second one in my room somewhere, which I might do if I can stop coughing tomorrow.