my annual b-day party and other stuff

so those of you that have been reading this since the beginning pretty much know that i throw myself a birthday party every year with my friend dee. Or birthays are exactly one week apart with hers being march 12th and mine being march 19th. They have all been pretty successful. I think it started when i turned 23 and i threw a party at the M Lounge in Philly... and i just did the club party thing for a few years... then on my 26th birthday, i had an 80's party... the favors for that party where old school goodie bags filled with all types of crap.. now and laters, lemon heads, button candy, candy necklaces, garbage pail kid stickers, friendship bracelets... a bunch of 80's stuff... the place had graffiti pics up so it went well with the theme, and we had old toys on the tables... like slinky and little green army men and jacks and those . For my 27th birthday I had a chocolate themed party. the favors for the chocolate party were oversized martini glasses filled with miniature godiva and rocher chocolates and 5 of the glasses had a "golden ticket" in it. whoever got a golden ticket was able to get a free birthday drink from the bar... (the place where i had the party made a signature cocktail for the evening which was a spin on a chocolate martini called a chocolate covered cherry). we had chocolate covered strawberries (that i made myself) and pretzels on the table.... that was a big hit.
last year we did an asian themed party. we had it at this place called swanky bubbles which is a champagne lounge and restaurant. there is an upstairs to it which is very loungy and our favors were chines take out boxes filled with mini paper fans and green tea and ginseng and customized fortune cookies and fake asian money. we had a few trays of appetizers (potstickers and sesame chicken strip things and something else i can't remember). we also had a 2 hour premium open bar for our guests. as you can probably tell, i spend a lot of money on these parties. even though i technically throw them with my friend dee, i come up with all the ideas and themes and favors and i always end up spending way more money than she does. i don't particularly care because i can not have my name attached to anything tacky... so i'll spend a little extra for things to be how i like them. well this year, dee is turning the big 3-0 so she is doing her own thing and i am doing my own. I think this is the last one for me. i haven't been feeling it lately... i mean i am very good at party planning/throwing... but why am i spending all this money for other folks to have a good time and only like 5 people bring gifts or gift cards. so this year is the last party i throw myself. next year, when i turn 30, i am planning a trip to Negril, Jamaica for whoever wants to go and then that's it for me. I'll gladly plan other people's parties but i don't think i will do anymore for myself.
i wanted to go out with a bang but i decided to just do a skating party. roller skating like back int he day. i can rent the rink from 11 pm- 2 am and it includes the dj, food, and security. favors this year will be t-shirts i am having made... this is slightly obnoxious but i am going to TRY to photoshop a pic of myself so that it looks like a comic and put a talk bubble that says something referencing 1980 and put that on the t-shirts. i'm not sure what yet. i haven't thought this particular party all the way through yet but feel free to give some suggestions and I'll keep you posted ont he progress.