Today was Justin's big birthday bash, the result of weeks of planning by myself, Seal and Wina. So funny, Wina had only known Justin for about a month, but somehow she made it her mission to throw him a birthday party. She had recruited Seal, who had only known him for about 2 weeks but liked planning events, and me, a brand new Seattle transplant who didn't know any of his other friends.

Clearly, the makeup of this team was flawed if *I* was the person who knew him best. Anyway, Wina would be in charge of getting Justin to the surprise and stealing his phone to get his friends and coworkers' phone numbers, and Seal and I handled the logistics of reservations and dealing with promoters.

The plan was dinner and drinks at Karma Lounge, then a private booth for dancing at Venom. It seemed like such a simple plan, but I was unprepared for all the money stress that was to come. The main problem was that our guestlist composed of multiple small groups who didn't know each other. No one RSVP'd, so everyone came and went over the course of the night. Except for Justin, no one knew who was in our group and who wasn't. So, everything that anyone ordered went on one check.

So a good chunk of people left early, just estimating what they owed. A few people didn't pay at all. Most people were bad at math, plus everyone was drunk. I had to play the unenviable role of bill nazi asking everyone questions like "are you in Justin's party?", "did you pay yet?", "How many drinks did you have?" and "Did you put in money for Justin's share". I HATE being bill nazi. Seeing that I was getting frustrated, Seal thankfully stepped in and became the bill holder and money counter. But it got worse.

On to the reserved booth at Venom. They had a set booth tab that we needed to spend or lose. The first problem was we didn't have enough big drinkers (aka single guys) in the group. The ones we did have were happy to nurse their one beer all night. Plus, the waitress was lazy and wouldn't let us pay separately (despite the promoter assuring me otherwise). So, random people ordered stuff, then forgot and left leaving not enough money, or just straight took off.

I started to have some heated conversations with our waitress who I suspect wasn't counting the drinks that we were ordering accurately. So with about half an hour to go, I just started buying round after round of shots, just to get our money's worth. I know I was visibly disturbed about it, but I had to bite my tongue when people would come up and tell me not to worry about it so much. I couldn't. The entire night was going on my credit card.

Already having been burned at dinner, I glumly did my bill nazi duties at the end of the night and wasn't surprised to find that I was triple digits short. Being unemployed, I just couldn't justify losing this much money on one night. Meanwhile, I felt really bad for the people who stuck around, because they tried to help me out and ended up way overpaying. Argh!

At the very end of the night, Justin pulled me aside and said he really appreciated the job the three of us had done for him. We had surprised him with a bunch of his friends, taken care of all his planning for him, and made sure he was dancing with at least 4 girls all night long. He had a really good time and drunkenly shoved a hundred dollar bill into my hands. Sigh. Thanks man, hope you had a happy birthday.

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