Alextravaganza

A little Alex goes a long way...

This is my recounting of the Alextravangza, which includes a breakdown of the Alex demographics. Please find the final breakdown at the bottom.

the before :

My housemate is named Alex. He is a strong man. He goes to the gym a lot. He loves oatmeal and has a tapestry of Lake Louise in his room. He is inherently a nice man, valuing religion highly. (In later issues, I may investigate the impact of his religious upbringing on how I perceive his niceness.)

Foreshadowing: months later, upon more socialization with the Alexes (more on that later) we discover the other Alex we selected for from the Alex party also loves oatmeal, and has created an entire song about how much he loves it. This further supports my theory,

(I theorize people that have more common names such as Alex will have a stronger identify association with their name and see themselves more strongly as an Alex than for example someone with a unique name. I hypothesize that since their name does not create for them a sense of individuality in the same way a more unique or cultural name would, they lean into being “an Alex”, and have more similarities among the sample groups. I will test this later in another post called “critical name theory” you can find here on my blog).

Back to the preamble, Alex has recently moved here from being a remote worker in various places around the States. When you first move somewhere, you do not have many friends. To assist him on this quest for friendship and human connection, I decided to help.

My housemate Danielle and I have been extremely interested in the concept of “postering the city”, in which we create many posters and attempt to connect with people the old fashioned way, with the tear-off tabs and a phone number stuck to a pole. Danielle has been working on creating dating posters, advertising our friends and respective muses for the purpose of finding love. While she worked on this at our kitchen table one fateful night, I scribble down 5 posters of my own that say, “is your name Alex? call me!” and include my personal phone number because I am an idiot, in an attempt to have a project of my own to promote the next day when we inevitably go postering the city.

My goal with these, was to find many people named Alex that our Alex, will be able to call upon and immediately have something in common to connect them. I also thought it would be easier for Danielle and I to remember the names of Alex’s friends if they were all the same (Alex!). The mental image of all the Alexes playing a board game and having to say, "Please pass me this Alex," and all of them turning, was enough for me to put forth the effort of creating those first posters. I giggle to myself loudly and draft the first round of posters while Danielle works on her posters of much higher execution but still a relatively stupid goal, this is why we get along.

The next day, Danielle and I spend about 20 minutes hanging them around town. And I get about 20 messages from various Alexes inquiring about what I need them for. Danielle and I, never expecting a result of this calibre from my handwritten, scribbled, ominous posters, decided that we must do something with all of our Alexes. We decide to host an Alextravangza. That night, we sat down and make dozens of additional posters, now advertising the Alex exclusive party, interspersed with more ominous messaging. These posters called for Alex, Alexa’s, Alexi’s, Alexanders, Alexandreas, etc. If you know an Alex, you get a plus one to the Alex party.

Our posters get some traction on reddit. Hundred’s of Alexes start pouring into my dm’s, while others theorize on the reddit comments about how they will never text that number and that we must be elaborate scammers trying to steal their banking information. While I am not trying to steal their banking information, I suppose I cannot completely refute claims that we are elaborate scammers, so I digress.

By this time we have picked a weekend for the party and create a link to the event page. we explain that everyone must befriend our Alex, and validate via texting us some government ID; no Alex going unchecked before being admitted to the guest list. Friends start to share with us the reddit post they saw while scrolling that morning. They hate the idea and immediately know it belongs to us.

the calm before the storm:

To prepare for the Alex party, we think of Alex themed activities, Danielle creates a word hunt where all of the answers are different Alexes, and orders a tug of war rope, we whiteboard in our living room how we will make the Alex purists battle the derivative Alexes. I decide I want there to be a fire and Danielle and I fill out hundreds of name-tags that say either Alex or not Alex as the only options. We go to bed that night nervously anticipating the Alex party. And our Alex, the one we did all of this for, tells us he will not be able to make the Alex party, because he is going skiing in Tahoe for the weekend.

With more than 100 Alex’s invited to our Alex party, the show must go on, with or without original Alex, and now we have a void of Alex in our household to fill anyways. A void so large it can only be filled by 100 Alexes perhaps.

the Alex party:

Objectively speaking, the Alex party was a success. I could go through and recount the Alex’s bonding, or each individual Alex who attended, of which, they all had a unique trait. For example some notable Alexes were:

• kite Alex, who came first and immediately ignore Danielle and I to fly his kite

• a chance Alex who we ended up sharing the fire pit with who had no idea there was going to be an Alex party there that day,

• outdoorsy Alex,

• fire Alex,

• knife Alex,

• and many more, including people who have the last name Alex and any other variation of the name

But I feel to tell the story that way would be disingenuous to what I experienced at the Alex party. And I am nothing if not genuous.

For whatever reason, I presumed the entire time leading up to the party, that I would be but a mere humble observer for the Alex party. I did not for a single minute think about how I would have to socialize with the various Alexes. This oversight cost me greatly, when the Alexes tried to talk to me or asked me about the idea behind my party, I instead of telling them all of this dear reader, felt annoyed, because I had wanted to watch and see how THEY would interact. I was merely meant to be a fly on the wall at this party and they were RUINING my vision there before my very eyes. And all the while smiling and making eye contact with me (another thing I hate!).

I politely excuse myself from the conversation I am having with an Alex and like the tide make my way further and further up the beach, to my car. Stopping only to say bye Alex loudly to the crowd, they murmur goodbye not alex back in unison. I call Danielle and tell her I need a breather, that I must escape the Alex party. And like a shamed child, I flee.

Before I close out my recounting of what happened at the Alex party, there is one Alex that I would like to call out. One clear standout Alex who rose above the rest and reigned superior. This, dear reader, is who we now refer to as Cool Alex. Cool Alex showed up on time, brought all of the firewood that I requested, kept the fire burning (both on the dancefloor, as he showed us his Russian folk dance, and in actuality, by creating and tending to the real fire). He held a sign and cheered to recruit the other Alexes and did not ask me many questions. He knew his role at this party and the really thrived within it. This Alex has now become a staple to Danielle and I, as whenever our Alex is out of town we now call upon Cool Alex, an earned title, to step up (and because he is Cool Alex, you better believe that he always does). End sidebar.

As I drive further and further away from the Alex party, my lungs flood with air, for I can take a deep breath again. I sigh of relief and think of poor Danielle. She’s a stronger woman than I. Can that woman ever handle a large number of Alexes simultaneously. A skill she refuses to put on her LinkedIn profile, despite my many extremely convincing pleas.

To see a more detailed recounting of events from the Alextravanganza please see Danielles’ blog, where she shares her experience.

post:

How has life changed since the Alex party you may ask? Everything is the same, but also forever different. We now have a group chat that is the exact same as our roommates group chat, that now also includes Cool Alex. He actually hosted my most recent party as well. Our Alexes have met, and have an undeniable rivalry, but also a bond, that Danielle and I will never be quite about to understand or infiltrate. And we wouldn’t want to!

I now have an extensive Rolodex of Alexes. I am quite literally, riddled with Alexes. If you need an Alex in the San Francisco greater area, I am your girl. Whenever our Alex leaves we call to Cool Alex. This has left regular Alex, seeking a nickname of his own. He tried to coin the term original Alex, but an Alex adjective name has to be given. We are still following him on his journey to finding his place, in the Alex expanded universe.

Although our Alex did not get to make friends with all of them like I originally intended, all is well that ends well, and maybe the world needed the Alextravaganza more than Alex Carter did that day.

Now lets get into the math:

Alex Breakdown

Here are some statistics about the Alex demographic that came to the party.

Dimensional Cuts:

Age: The oldest Alex we had was 82, and the youngest was 5 years old. The median age of Alex was 26.

Racial Breakdown:

Male to Female Ratio:

Breakdown by name:

Final count of Alexes by first name: 82

Final count of Alexes by middle name: 3

Final count of Alexes by last name: 5

Findings:

The most interesting thing that I found from the Alex related data upon consolidating it was that almost every different racial group and ethnic background has their own variation of the name Alex, excluding African Americans, representing our fewest amount of Alexes.

I would be interested to see this experiment replicated years from now when the age of the Amazon Alexa has killed that popular female name. The Alex landscape is ever changing and fluid, and it is up to you dear reader, to investigate long after Danielle and I are gone. Or maybe all Alex related information lives and dies with us. Would the world even notice?