Party planning time

It's Party Planning Time, party planning in time of #pandemic to boot..

(Readers are invited to imagine their favorite festive visual motif.)

Wait, first it's annual #Shakeout with a dollop of #BombCyclone. These cheery allusions to the wonders of nature SHOULD  nudge RantWoman to do SOMETHING in the way of Disaster Preparedness. RantWoman realized that if she is going to go online and look for instructions she can read about her new crank radios, PROBABLY she should do that before the power goes out especially if she needs to rely on her crank radios to help charge her connections to the internet. . 

RantWoman SHOULD do that.

But imagining a holiday  party or letting the blind kid in the office plan the holiday party sounds like the perfect #NDEAM activity. Understand, "Plan the party" encompasses quite a variety of occasions, and quite a number of realms where RantWoman has found it tolerable to wander even after midlife vision meltdown. Planning a party in a pandemic though: should vaccines be required? What about masks except when eating? What about SINGING, known to lead to superspreader events in the past? 

RantWoman's personal perspective: RantWoman has no idea whether people she is around have been vaccinated. RantWoman has no idea where people have been the last 3 days. RantWoman prefers to be around people who are vaccinated, but RantWoman rides the bus and has to be safe in that environment or she doesn't go anywhere. RantWoman wears a mask whenever she is out except when in a well-ventilated space and eating a meal. RantWoman enjoys other people's singing--from a safe distance.

But RantWoman, the Delta Variant? The current directive about outdoor venues with more than 500 people or places where alcohol is served. 

Repeat as above. If the party occurs at a place that does not allow alcohol...and there is no way there would be 500 guests...and other ventilation and social distancing concerns....

RantWoman recently went to a lovely wedding in a large space with many doors to open. The meal happened around tables about 6' in diameter. People from the many strands of the couple's lives mostly sat in their own clumps or pods. There was singing--outdoors and not indefinitely because of rain. There was also dancing, though the number of guests willing to dance was never large enough to make social distancing impossible.

The party at hand is much more modest: an annual event that runs somewhere between 25 and 40 people. There is food. There is a white elephant gift exchange. There is singing if desired. In the past this party has taken place in a restaurant with a limited choice of menu and a set price per guest with the rest covered by the organization having the party.. RantWoman has not even checked whether the restaurant is open. It's way too closed in to satisfy RantWoman's requirements for #pandemic era ventilation. Even if RantWoman were willing to go for it, an intrepid blind nurse would not go for it. So the initial thought was a reprise of last year's virtual event.  

RantWoman and others thinking about planning know of various rentable venues. RantWoman regularly gets email ads from a place that RantWoman knows does lovely box lunches. Sooo, what if the group planning the party were to rent a venue and let everyone order their choice of menu item, no host? The cost would actually be less and a better deal than past experience at the restaurant.

Bear in mind, RantWoman has ordered food from the site, but the first time she forwarded the link to other planners, many more blind than RantWoman, someone couldn't read the menu with their available tools. RantWoman will try again but there is still the matter of venue.

Venue A is a place RantWoman knows well and therefore can give good blind-friendly directions about. Excellent transit connections. A plausible paratransit dropoff location. Space RantWoman thinks has enough windows and options for extra ventilation. Venue A has a website. It has pictures. Some of the pictures have rather uninspiring capttions but at least there are captions. RantWoman thinks this would be a great venue, well, except for one architectural feature RantWoman would want to deal with VERY carefully for this particular audience. Quiet space for people to take a break and a sound system would be on RantWoman's list to ask about. 

Another planner suggested a different venue. Bus connections exist but are so sparse that RantWoman doesn't even want to go look for more about the venue.

RantWoman realized a couple other venues might be appropriate including one already well known to many of the guests.

Truthfully, RantWoman is not sure there is enough coherent energy to have a party, but doing her part to keep the ball rolling, RantWoman emailed Venue A last week, 6 days ago, just to ask whether Venue A has resumed rentals. RantWoman has to date received NO email in response.  RantWoman could just stop caring whether Venue A is in general interested in renting its space let alone whether it is ready to reopen. 

Or maybe one of these days RantWoman will overcome numerous challenges in the interpersonal charm department. Maybe. Holiday parties are needed regardless.

Or RantWoman could repeat a LONGstanding concern about more appealing photo captions / alt text and customer  service.