UHHG! I know all of these people! Thankfully I’ve outgrown being dumb enough to invite 5s and 3s, but I still get stuck with 6s everytime I have a party, and sometimes more than one of them.
Unfortunately, I’ve been #1 :smack: (not for a few years, thank god.) Only slightly less embrassing, and also not for a few years, I’ve been #7 a time or two as well.
(Hell, what am I embarassed about? This is the SDMB - we’ve all been #1)
They overlooked Skanky Girl–like this girl I knew in college whose ethics worked something like this: if she saw you come in with a guy, she wouldn’t go home with him, but if you seemed to have a fight during the party, she considered him fair game.
I’m a number 6 myself. I hate going to parties because I know I’m a number 6 every time.
I know I’m always going to end up being the Politics Guy. I try my best to stay away from the subject but somebody else always insists.
Last party, I didn’t intend to be but that one woman did mention a sale on curtains at Linens and Things. It wasn’t my fault!
The nice thing about being middle-aged is that the only real danger is Politics Guy. Most of the rest of the behavior is stuff you grow out of eventually, once you acquire some, yanno, social skills.
I’m a #6, too. That’s why I do my best to avoid parties.
True, with the caveat that I consider the #8 type treasures. Grown ups who can be neat while making conversation are a joy to behold.
There’s also a 2nd kind of skanky girl–the one who dresses as if she’s half her age or weight, wears too much makeup, etc.
I too am a number 6. We should all get together sometime.
Then again, probably not.
I’m a #6 too, but I’ll talk to people who will talk to me.
Hint: Next time you see a #6 at your party, stop and look at whether they’re not talking to your other friends, or if your other friends are ignoring them. Here in Minnesota (“Land of 10,000 Cliques”), it’s more likely that all your friends are going to hang around in their own little pockets and refuse to deal with strangers, even at a large party.
Yeah, I only invite #8s, and my house is cleaner after a party than before!
I have a friend who is #9: Mr. Oh Look, You Have A Guitar. I like the guy a lot, mind you, and he’s pretty good at playing guitar, but when we have a bunch of people over I generally want to be social and talking to people, and when you have one guy sitting in the middle of the living room playing the guitar, nobody feels comfortable talking over him and the whole evening turns into Bored People Listen To Guitar Guy. Or at best, a couple of people having isolated conversations on the periphery.
(edited: I think next time we have people over, I’ll put the guitar in the bedroom ahead of time “so it doesn’t get damaged” and see if that does the trick.)
Now I’m going to spend several days trying to remember where I know #3 guy from. He looks disturbingly familiar.
Uhhhhg, I’ve known a few of those. I’ve never been able to decide what’s worse: when they can play or when they can’t play. Can’t play is more annoying but tends not to last as long.
I admit to having been a 1, a 6 and a guitar guy. The guitar thing is a tightrope. Most guys overdo it. It can get you tail (or at least a shot it) if you do it right, but you have to be very sparing. Somebody has to ask you to play. You have to be reluctant about it. Then play one or two songs and STOP. If you execute the maneuver correctly, you can seem like you have mystique and talent. One song too many (and one song too many can be as little as two), and you become a douchebag with a guitar. It’s a tightrope.
Number 10- The “No matter what the topic of the conversation it happened to me and I’m an expert on it” guest (particularly bad when it’s a theater major.)
Number 11: The guest who responds to good natured ribbing (often by their partner) with a thoroughly nasty evil unfunny cutting comment that you all have to just awkwardly chuckle and pretend was somewhere between a joke and something that never happened (and you all know is going to be major conversation when he leaves).
Number 12: The ones who won’t take the hint to leave. Even when the hint is “I’m going to be now, goodnight.”
I was actually slightly relieved (in this regard anyway) when one of my friends moved to another state, as he had become #2, and there was no way to tell him without sounding like an asshole. It’s a party, not a goddamn daycare. I invited you, not your spawn.
In case this one’s not clear- imagine you invite a couple called Pete and Marge. Marge may or may not have had a bit too much to drink in the evening, or it may or may not be obvious that she and Pete are having “problems”. Somebody says cooking is almost a religion to them and Pete makes a quip:
Pete: "Well the closest Margaret ever came to cooking as a religious experience was making ‘burnt offerings’ yuk yuk yuk…
Marge: “Yeah, hah hah hah… shame I can’t cook like your mother… course at least unlike your mother I haven’t driven a husband to cutting his throat in the basement like your father did! Of course it saved him having to hang out in men’s rooms I guess… like I would have if I’d been married to the old bitch… though you obviously prefer her to me…”
Other guests: heh heh heh yeah… basement… Barb here has a basement story… the time the cat did that thing that awkwardly changes the subject why don’t you tell it!
Unfortunately, more often than not, I tend to be #6. I tend to have a diverse group of friends who don’t know each other and therefore I tend not to know all of each of their peeps. I’m not great at initiating conversations with strangers so…
But if this happens to you as host it’s really your own fault. If you are inviting people who don’t know each other you should really be 1) introducing your friends to each other with hints as to what they have in common so that they have a basis for connecting or 2) starting up some kind of group activity like a game where people will automatically be interacting with each other.
So when people invite me to parties that I know the host will be the only person I’m familiar with I tell them they better either keep me company or introduce me to someone interesting. Or let me bring someone I know and can chill with.