Top 25 College Memories: 4: "The Classy Parties"

I'm not a drinker. I'm not a dancer. I'm not a partier. I'm not even that friendly most of the time, to be honest with you. But give me a chance to get all dressed up and play host to my friends for a few hours, and I will run with it.

Number 4 on the Top 25 countdown: The Classy Parties.

Come Classy To Get Trashy (Classy I):

Admittedly, my memory of this night is not great. I was completely sober, as I was for all of these parties, but it was just so long ago it's somewhat lost in the crowd now.

I do remember sitting down with my roommates, making the plans. And I remember tons of Luke's friends taking their shirts off, dirty dancing, and then at like 3 a.m. me having to ask a friend of Peter's named Tom McDonald to kick people out of the house so we could all go to bed.

But whatever else happened, it was a good enough time to make us want to do it again the next year.

Classy II: The Quest for the Ultimate Cover Photo

When Come Classy To Get Trashy 2011 came around, I had a plan. Most of my friends were (and still are) pretty females, so I wanted a collage of all of them from the Classy Party for my Facebook cover photo (which was fairly new at that time) and to show off a bit.

The highlight of Classy II was when a girl got locked in Peter's bathroom and climbed out of the bathroom window. It was, otherwise, another classy evening. And, of course, this happened:

Classy III: Validation

Come Classy To Get Trashy 2012 was, in many ways, a social experiment.

It was my first big party without my old roommates, and I was very scared of this because I knew the previous parties were more their thing and it was more their friends that came.

On top of that, we were charging 5 dollars from everyone to help pay for drinks and supplies. As classy as the house was, and as classy as our drinks were, that was nothing. The problem was, anyone who had come to a party before at my house was used to not having to pay. But every other party I had ever been to charged a cover, so it was strange to me how people reacted so negatively to me asking for five dollars. A lot of people I thought were my friends refused to come because of it.

So, here I am, throwing my first solo party essentially, and I thought nobody was going to show up. My roommate Lexi invited her sorority, but many of them couldn't make it, so I went out recruiting people. I invited a bunch of my theatre friends, but was still less-than-optimistic going into it. But we had a great setup: wine glasses, snacks, black and silver streamers.

The night of the party, I started picking people up early and when I had everyone at the house, it was still dead. There were maybe 15 people there. Maybe. That's being generous. The old parties got into the 30s, 40s even. I wanted to at least even that, both for my self-esteem and for my pride.

My friend Grace had somewhere else to be, so after she stayed awhile, I left to take her home and pick up my friend, Skye. When I got back, I could not believe what I saw. There was no room to walk in my house. The living room was packed. People were overflowing into the kitchen. The basement was full. All the drinks were gone. There was a large group "wobble" taking place in the living room.

When all was said and done, we estimated there were at least 60 - maybe close to 70 - people there. And, most of them paid 5 bucks. We actually broke even that night, which was a plus. And I proved to myself that I could throw a party without my old roommates.

More importantly, it was validation that I do have people who are good friends, who didn't just want to use me for my house, car, and free booze. A LOT of my theatre friends came, had a great time, and MOST importantly, I had a great time. Again.

BEST OF THE BEST

Unofficial Classy Party Awards

Best Picture: Bethany Nagle and Loui Vong, 2011