Over the past weekend, I had an absolute blast celebrating the birthday of one of my buddies. You always know it’s bound to be a good time when multiple friends can make it over for some late gaming, good food, and a great selection of craft beers.

And in fact, that’s exactly what transpired at our place. What made it so great in particular was that we were able to have a lot of fun with a new video game that just released last Friday. Considering it was something that we all had never played before, we were all on a similar footing and were able to navigate the world of the game together, often doing raids with one another thanks to wireless play.

Of course, once the weekend was over, there was a bit of work to be done. I’m never a fan of hosting mini get-togethers since it inevitably means cleaning up after your guests. Nonetheless, I tried to predict this and avoid messes, left out dishes, and other similar things so that the mess would be manageable after everyone happened to leave. To my surprise, there were just a few cardboard boxes to pick up, electronics to put back where they belong, and just a handful of craft beer cans that were still in the basement. I’d chock that up as a win.

It’s times like these with close friends that make me realize I need to do it much more often. It’s not that I need to (or even want to!) meet up with them every single weekend, or even every other weekend. But being able to hang out like that once every month or two would sincerely make me feel closer with my friends while also being able to kick back and truly enjoy myself from time to time.

Of course, doing so means more cleanup after I have them over, but the great thing is picking up cardboard boxes and empty cans is a fantastically simple chore compared to mopping up actual messes from “parties” that people like to get pretty wild at. I’m the type of person to go with a much more mellow and chill gathering rather than force something you’d only experience while in college. The fact that some of my friends still like to do such partying blows my mind, but I suppose that’s a part of aging and realizing what you enjoy in life and what you don’t.

I always love it when November rolls around, if only because it signals two things: my birthday and the upcoming winter holidays.

I’ve always been a fan of my birthday landing in the middle of November simply because it starts off a great sequence of holidays and days off of relaxing and lounging. In fact, it’s the perfect way to “wind down” the remainder of the year before starting it back up again in full force when January rolls around.

So for next week when I have buddies over, I plan to pretty much play video games in my basement with them on 3 different TVs. This will be the perfect setup for gaming and hanging out all weekend, and we won’t have to bother my partner who will most likely remain upstairs the majority of the time. It works for us and it works for her.

But one thing I know I’ll have to take care of prior to my birthday weekend is cleaning up the basement. It’s not necessarily that it’s a “mess”, per se. Rather, there just happens to be extra folded laundry down there (since that’s where our laundry appliances are) as well as a lot of old cardboard boxes full of belongings that are being kept in storage. If I can put all the laundry away, consolidate the storage boxes, and do a quick sweep through of loose items and whatever else needs picked up, it’ll be ready to go.

There’s also the fact that I’ll want to have multiple televisions set up down there. Unfortunately for me, my basement only has one outlet, so I’m forced to rig up multiple extension cords and drop cords to be able to run multiple TVs. While this sounds super crammed at first, it’s really not that bad thanks to the multiple cords spread out along the basement (in a manner that won’t cause anyone to trip, of course).

From there, it’s just configuring the table and my small home entertainment stand to make sure all TVs face the couch and none of those aforementioned cardboard boxes full of things are in the way. Throw in a thorough sweeping and dusting and I’ll have brought the basement together quite nicely so that everything is ready to go ahead of time.

I’m sure a lot of people don’t spend their birthday this way, but it’s what I prefer to do this year (and it helps that a new game is dropping on the day after my birthday, so it only makes sense to enjoy the weekend appropriately).