Chaos Party Birthday Fun

I love a theme! and I love the PopSugar Publication. So when I read about Chaos Parties on the Popsugar site, I was automatically in! I like to host the kinds of events/parties/workshops that I’d like to attend, and if they don’t already exist in my orbit, I create them.

Since I wasn’t fortunate enough to be invited to Kimberly Clark’s chaos party back in college, I decided it was time to throw my own!

As part of my birthday bash chaos celebration I created a cabinet of curiosities, filled out my scrolls, prepped my mismatched food pairings (gummy bears and popcorn, prosciutto and pineapple skewers, cheese blocks cut into different sizes, etc.) and was ready to see how the night would unfold.

I was very vague with my FB invite – it was just titled [the event] with no details other than time and place. I love how I hang out with a group of people who simply respond ‘yes’ without knowing any of the details. Perfect chaos party audience!

And when people asked what to wear – I said, “Whatever makes you feel good. There are no rules.”

And thus…

Her sense of spunk is contagious!

Anyhow – back to the cabinet.

Each scroll (curiosity) contained in the cabinet had a rule written on it and I allowed people to discover the scrolls on their own. Some of the rules were pulled verbatim from different websites featuring chaos party prompts, some were slightly tweaked, and some were self-generated. Check out a smattering below:

• You have been blessed with clairvoyance for the night. You must give all guests a convincing prediction (whether or not they ask for it).
• Keep mentioning how good the blueberry cobbler is – there is no blueberry cobbler.
• Ask people if you can feel the bridge of their nose.
• Incorporate work out moves when you are talking to people (i.e. squats, calf raises, bicep curls).
• At least once you must lead everyone in the room in the electric slide no matter what song is playing.
• Start every conversation by dangling your left hand and asking excitedly, “Did you hear the news?!” Don’t wear any rings.
• Go around and ask everyone for a contribution to your chaos fund – put collections in this jar – we also accept used and unused gift cards of any amount! (Thanks to the particularly persuasive party guest that picked that prompt we ended up with 8 dollars, 31 cents, and an indeterminate amount of gift fund money in the jar that we raffled off at evening’s end.)
  

I’m still not entirely sure who got what prompts, if every party guest decided to take on the challenge, or what the reception to the prompts was from whomever they were in dialogue with, but the few confused glances and exasperated “What is happening?” bits of convo I did catch had me doubled over in belly laughs.

I do wish people had found the scrolls individually throughout the night; instead, it seemed, as if nobody noticed them or a group noticed all at once leaving less people than I wanted in the dark. However, seeing how confused those particular people were when someone would break out singing the alphabet randomly, or approach them with a sock puppet was everything!

And in the spirit of full transparency, I forgot I had written a scroll about the Electric Slide and just though that was someone’s authentic suggestion until right now as I was looking back through the prompt list to write this blog!

I also went on a walk with my neighbor who was in attendance and she brought up my daughter waving her hand in front of her face asking if she’d heard the news. My daughter is 16 and my neighbor confessed to me that she gave her a little ‘talking to’. I started giggling saying, ‘That was just part of the party game.”

Cheers to the creation of fun intentional chaos in a night of play, as opposed to the more serious, depressing chaos playing out on the world stage.