BYOB

Undergrad parties were usually the hosts buying for everyone- grad school parties are truly bring-your-own. I always thought that bringing something to the host's house was just an annoying social convention. Then, when I realized how hard it is to figure out how many people are coming, I concluded that the host buys enough drinks for the estimated number of people who are supposed to come- then, when 30 extra people show up, the stuff they bring evens out the drinks-per-person ratio.

But you would still think that at the end of the party, there would be less of everything than at the beginning. I had about 30 people over last night for a Dance Dance Revolution party. I had two 12-packs, and then bought one more- for a modest figure of 1.2 beers per person. Now, instead of three 12-packs, there are SEVEN 12-packs in my fridge- which, as you would imagine, pretty much renders the fridge too full for, say, food. The bottle total in the recycling bin indicates that only one 12-pack was consumed, unless people took the bottles with them as souveniers. (Also, 3 bottles of wine, and most of a bottle of cherry vodka, so it wasn't entirely a dry party.)

This means that I bought 3x too much beer and the people who brought beer brought 5x too much beer. OOPS. Fortunately, there is a party tonight and a Superbowl party on Sunday. Otherwise, I would have to test that beer-is-bread theory for the next two months.

The food- homemade salsa, devilled eggs, cheese ball, veggies and hummus, and rice krispie treats- was much more proportional.