I am going to rant today on a topic that is near and dear to my heart....RSVPing.
I don't host all that many parties throughout the year. I always throw a big bash for Steve's birthday mid-summer, try to do something fun for my own birthday, and then a few other holiday or group things throughout the rest of the year. This past weekend made me realize why I don't throw that many parties....especially with people that I don't know that well.
There is a girl in my office that is moving from Anchorage to our Juneau office to start a new department. She has been at the company for 10 years and has many friends that still work here and many that have come and gone but still keep in touch. Well she sent out an email in the beginning of December (maybe even earlier than that, but definitely before the Christmas insanity) to ask everyone what weekend in the beginning of January would be best to get together for her last hurrah here in the ANC. A bunch of people responded and January 10th was the agreed upon date. We all thought we going to go to Simon and Seafort's (a nice restaurant up here) for dinner and drinks followed by a night out. Well, one of Angela's friends decided to do the coordinating for Angela since she already has to deal with the stress of moving and all that jazz. Unfortunately, due to the insanity of the holidays, nothing was done until the week following the new year. Which means, phone calls for reservations weren't put in until Monday, January 5th and none of the planned locations had any openings for parties of 15 to 20 people.
Well, I was in the restaurant world for 4.5 years through college and still have many friends in the business. My best friend is the banquet coordinator at Sullivan's Steakhouse (an upscale steakhouse) and another really good friend, Donna, is the manager. So, I give a call in to see if they could get us in last minute. Being my friends, they were able to pull some strings and get us into a private room and even waived the room minimum charge of $600 in sales. So I tell everyone that I have found a location for us to have the party at, since I felt bad that it looked as though the party wasn't going to happen, and hoped for the best.
Well, Saturday night rolls around and my sister and I show up right at 7pm to find the room nearly deserted. In the end, only 6 people other than Angela (who the party was for) bothered showing up. Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful time. The drinks were wonderful, the food was so good I ate until I was sick, and the service was fantastic. But I couldn't help feeling disappointed and a little slighted. If I didn't have friends at Sullivan's, we would have had to fork out nearly $200 more dollars than what we paid to reach the room minimum of $600. Then Donna, gives us one of every dessert on the menu for free to help us celebrate.
In the end, I realized (once again) that I have wonderful friends. If it wasn't for Carrie and Donna, the night probably wouldn't have happened and definitely wouldn't have been nearly as nice. I put myself on the line for the people I work with and they completely let me down. Granted, I wasn't in charge of the party, but it still sucked. If you RSVP to be at a party, show up! Sometimes it makes a difference in HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS!! And if you don't really want to go, buck up, put on your big girl panties, and RSVP saying NO!! I am so tired of people playing games and saying 'maybe' for two weeks when you know they just don't want to insult you and say no. But people have lives!! If you can't make it, you can't make it. I would rather know not to expect you then go to a party set up for 20 people and only having 7 show up! If I had actually been the coordinator of this party, you better believe I would have been giving people hell for not showing up. The big difference is, if this was a party with MY core group of friends, we are all honest enough with each other to say that we will or will not be there, so we always know what to anticipate. Once again, this evening made me realize that my friends rock!
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