BYOB?

Last night I had a birthday party at our apartment. We made a bit of food and asked people to bring something to share. We had lots of food and drink and lots of leftovers. And most importantly, I think people had a good time.

We have now had a few parties at our place and I have noticed a few things. First, people tend to arrive at least 30 minutes after the time that I say. Now, I am used to this and expect it because that is the way all my friends are back home. You don't want to the first people at a party. So yesterday, I said 7:30 expecting people at 8:00 at the earliest. People started arriving at 7:40!! We weren't exactly ready because I thought that we had at least 20 more minutes. :)

Second, people tend not to eat very much. I am not sure if they eat before they come or just don't want to be rude and eat too much or if they don't like my food. People do eat more when we have the food close to where they sit, which makes sense because then they don't have to move to eat. Third, people tend not to eat food with a little bit of spice to it. I made pineapple salsa yesterday and very little of it got eaten while other food got eaten more.

Fourth, people tend to bring enough beer for themselves only. Wine, you have to share. However, when people bring beer, they may bring only a couple bottles/cans and then that is all they drink. They may drink other stuff if what they brought gets finished but overall, they just drink what they brought. Why is that? It is a party and as hosts, we have a variety of beverages. We always have beer. We generally don't buy that much beer because we are used to people bringing a 6 pack or so of what they like to drink. That way we have a good variety. We aren't quite used to the bring 2 cans thing.