Bonfire

Dave and I have quite a nice set-up in our yard for hosting bonfires, and generally we have one at least one or two per year since we've moved to this house.   We decided to make October the month of our official "annual" bonfire, which would we call Oktoberfest bonfire.  And Saturday night was the date for this year's event.

The fire

Everything went well. The people that were there were a diverse, yet great group of people.  We drank beer and Blue Maui (well, I drank Blue Maui), we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and just enjoyed a beautiful October evening that wasn't too cold.

In total, there were 11 or so people there, which is a great number, but it's far smaller than we were expecting, and I was a little sad.  Over 20 people had ultimately RSVP'd, either through our e-vite or via e-mail.  But, for some reason, at least 10 people (I say "at least" because some said that they might bring a guest) who had previously told us that they were coming either texted us last minute to say that they weren't coming, or just didn't show up at all.

I'm starting to realize to that I might be totally behind the times in thinking that a phone call is more appropriate than a text message if you're cancelling plans for someone.  Text messages are so impersonal to me and I think a lot of people use them as an easy "out," to not have to actually "face" the person by actually talking to them on the phone.   And, to add insult to injury, it costs me an extra 20 cents per text message every time someone "wrote" to cancel since I don't use text messaging, and an additional 20 cents if I decided to reply (which I mostly did not.)   So, it cost me nearly to $2 just to have people not come to my party.  Of course, I guess that I should be grateful that I knew at all that they weren't coming....

This weekend made me realize that perhaps our bonfires are just not as appealing to others as they are to us. Or perhaps we're having them too frequently (we did just have one this past May.)  Or perhaps there was just something in air last night that made everyone want to stay home.  Even though these events are pretty low key, we still had to do a lot of prep work to get the house and the yard ready for guests.  I'm having a hard time putting my finger on why I was so upset by so many people bailing on us, but I know that in the long run, it doens't really matter anyway.

Oh well - we had a great time with those that were there, and appreciate them all the more.