It's that time of year again. It's time for holiday parties. Each year I maybe get invited to two. I haven't gotten any invites yet. However, today I got on the elevator to go to work and posted to one side was a general invitation to the entire condo community to the holiday party. It's tonight in the lobby. I've lived here 6 years now and I haven't once gone to the holiday party.

First of all, it's held in the lobby of my building. Why in the lobby? People come home from work and have to walk through it to get to their mail boxes and the elevators. Do they think this will be a way to increase the attendance? If I was just coming home from work and walked into the lobby to find a party, I think I'd want to hide myself. Usually when I get home from work I'm tired and don't feel like socializing. Luckily I get home way before the party actually begins.

Secondly, I don't know anyone in my building really. I've lived here 6 years and don't know any of my neighbors by name. I do see them in the hall from time to time but I never have any conversations with them. There's an older lady who lives across the hall from me. When I see her in the hall she usually has her MP3 player plugged into her ears and doesn't say more then hello. Next to me is a russian couple who moved in last spring. They have completely renovated their place and often have crap sitting in the hallway. Once the wife came over and in her broken english asked if they could put their Dish Network dish on my balcony and stretch a cord over to their balcony. They don't have a clear shot to the satellite. I don't really either but she said they wanted to put it on the edge and point it in the right direction. I said no. Since then they barely say hi to me in the hall. I have no idea who lives on the rest of my hall. I never see anyone else. There is one guy I know that lives on the 11th floor but I don't see him anymore either. And recently I found out there's a guy I talk to on AOL who lives in my building. I met him once a long time ago but haven't seen him since. So I don't know anyone in the building that I'd want to hang out with during a holiday party.

FInally, there aren't many people in this building I'd care to get to know. There are basically two demographics that reside in my building. One is the elderly. There is a huge population of people in the 60s 70s and 80s in this building. When one of them dies, the post their funeral information on the bulletin board in the mail room. The other demographic consists of people from other countries. I'm sure many of them don't even celebrate Christmas. Many of them don't speak english as well. Or at least that's what I've gathered from riding in the elevator with them and hearing them talk to each other in their native tongues. I don't speak any languages so this might be a problem if I were to hang out at the party and try to strike up a conversation with them. The demographic that is missing is the gay population. I'm sure there are a few gay folks living in the building. I just haven't met them or seen them around.

Oh well, I'm skipping this holiday party again this year.