My birthday is coming up in a week, and so for the first time in four years, I’m actually organizing a birthday dinner for myself… at my favorite Indian Chinese restaurant in Queens. I’m even thinking about ordering a cake to have cut at the restaurant.

I remember the last time I did this, and the dinner ended up not being that enjoyable. The drinks event afterwards could possibly have been worse from my memory. But this year, I actually have high hopes for it. Maybe it’s just because I may be more confident now, and I really don’t care if the people who come get along or not. Or maybe I am more confident in the people in this crowd because I actually like all of them individually. Back in 2012 when I think about it more, I realized that I invited a lot of people not really because I liked them, but thought that they’d be offended if they weren’t invited, or just because of association with one of my other friends. That’s never a good reason to invite someone to anything, right?