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.