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Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

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71–80 of 440 posts

Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#71

I graduated right around the time Covid hit, and I feel like that wrecked my social life irreparably. I have 4-5 close friends I can hang out with every other week or so (nobody wants to hang out 1 to 1 every day), but all my friend groups dissipated. Some moved away, some moved on, some just stopped moving at all. I feel miserable and every couple of nights I have dreams of a Third Place where I can just go and make…

Things I've done to successfully restart my social life after Covid in the last year: * Restarted Crossfit. Social events have included BBQ's, meals out, trips away (normally CF related, but still great fun). Every box I've been to have been full of fun and interesting people. * Joined my local Wargaming/Boardgame club. Sit around drinking and playing games with a very varied bunch of people. Lots of nerds and the oc…

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Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#72
We used to go out for drinks after work every week. Now lots of people WFH so people aren't around. The other thing is lots of the young people in the team now dont drink, which is a big change for me.

Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#73
post #47

My problem with many of the comments is that even at 35 I'd find it quite strange, "taking someone to a party." So assuming that I'm remotely normal by almost 50 there is very little chance of successfully using the host more parties and meet more people that like parties strategy. If you invite people to a party, I think they are most likely to bring their spouse/SO so you are thus unlikely to meet new people that m…

If you have a cook or a housekeeper you're nowhere near upper middle class. Those are bygone times.

Don't know, a friend runs an optician's shop in a mall and has a live-in nanny who cooks for them and looks after the kids.

Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#74
post #37

Personally, I am no longer in the mood to party. As I approach 60, living a single life, battling lung cancer, with friends and family around me ill and dying or already dead, it feels like there isn't much left to celebrate. There probably won't even be any sort of party when I'm six feet under. No celebration of a life endured. The world moves on as we all suffer eternal oblivion.

Sorry to hear that, sounds like a tough situation. Next time I have a drink (many months from now probably), I'll take a moment to remember you.

Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#75
Last memorial day I tried to have a little BBQ... ended up eating and drinking by myself on/near the sidewalk in front of my apartment, while grilling and listening to a festive playlist with songs like Carry on my Wayward Son. I kept asking random people if they wanted a brat, but nobody did... until the guy towing my roommate's broken down car home arrived. The three of us shared one, the tow truck driver finished his as he was pulling away and that was that. It was nice; but a party it was not.

So drunk and frustrated me took to my rollerblades and grabbed a hockey stick to start passing around a puck to myself in front of the local sports bar's little outdoor eating area just a few doors down. The patrons were less than amused I suppose since they mostly looked appalled and irritated at the noise I was causing, but at least I felt like I "doing it right" as opposed to going out to eat like any other night and staring at instagram or reddit while ordering a $30 cheeseburger sitting next to a dumpster in what used to be the gross back lot of the bar. I think I probably unclipped the red velvet stanchion a couple of times just because I found it too comical to remain closed off.

Ultimately, I think it was a pretty weird day. I'm trying to be more at peace with the state of things now, but I can't help but mourn how it used to be.

The scene: https://www.instagram.com/p/CePpDq1rElU/?utm_source=ig_web_b...

Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#76
post #47

My problem with many of the comments is that even at 35 I'd find it quite strange, "taking someone to a party." So assuming that I'm remotely normal by almost 50 there is very little chance of successfully using the host more parties and meet more people that like parties strategy. If you invite people to a party, I think they are most likely to bring their spouse/SO so you are thus unlikely to meet new people that m…

If you have a cook or a housekeeper you're nowhere near upper middle class. Those are bygone times.

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Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#78
As we get older, we (and our peers) tend to have busier lives. It's not a bad thing, but it does interfere with our ability to have get-togethers.

"My husband and I are either going to buy a dog or have a child. We can't decide whether to ruin our carpet or ruin our lives."

- Rita Rudner

Re: Ask HN: Where are all the parties?

#79
I just turned 50. About 30 people showed up for the party my wife threw for me, and those were exactly the people I wanted to be there. I'm guessing my definition of "party" may be different from yours, but in the last two months, the community we've embedded ourselves in (via our church) has gotten together for my birthday, the darkest night of the year, and New Year's eve. These aren't raucous affairs, but rather 20-30 people getting together to eat good food, drink good wine, and enjoy each other's company.

In the darkest days of the pandemic, this same group got together outside nearly weekly, weather-be-damned.

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