I went to a retirement party recently, and something about it has been sitting with me ever since. At first I thought it was embarrassment. As hard as I tried to be endlessly polite, energetic, and enthusiastic, I couldn’t help but also vocalize my frustrations. Unfortunately, I didn’t vocalize them very articulately. It’s possible I simply sounded like a jaded, bitter, negative-nelly. The truth is, parties (events of all kinds, really) have been getting more and more challen