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" You will get doom chills and want to puke as soon as you see his name on the Facebook RSVP list. There&amp;#039;s no way to change that. There is, however, a constructive way to deal with it \u2014 which is not crying in the bathroom stall at work while flushing the toilet repeatedly in an attempt to muffle your howls of despair. Go get a drink of water and regroup emotionally.   The good news is that you are expecting it, rather than getting punched in the stomach/heart/vagina unawares \u2014 you&amp;#039;re not running into him on the street with dirty hair and your stained Seniors &amp;#039;05 hoodie. The bad news is that now you have from now until the party to go over every possible scenario in your mind until you feel like you belong in Girl, Interrupted. There is a better place to channel this energy: the gym.   Work out as soon as you possibly can, instead of turning to stress-eating or any more self-destructive behavior. It will release positive endorphins in your body, take your mind off it, and provide an outlet for your nervous energy. It will also give you something to do besides making all of your coworkers look at his potential new girlfriend&amp;#039;s Twitter and ask them if she&amp;#039;s funny-funny or just weird funny.   Don&amp;#039;t fall into the &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m Gonna Show Up and Look Fabulous and Throw a Diamond in His Eye and Walk Out With My Head High Because I&amp;#039;m Fierce&amp;quot; trap. Be realistic. Sure, that sounds great. In theory. But often, no matter how much you&amp;#039;ve prepared yourself to be like:   There is a chance that you might end up being more like:   And that&amp;#039;s OK! You need to put your own happiness above proving to your ex that you&amp;#039;re doing great without him. This kind of mentality seems to come up often with exes: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m gonna go to that party so he sees how awesome I look!&amp;quot; Or, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m sleeping with him to get back at him!&amp;quot; No. No matter how much Criss Angel Mindfreaking you have convinced yourself you&amp;#039;re doing, letting him inside you is not revenge. Neither is going to a party where he and his new girlfriend will be, tossing your perfect hair, pretending that everything&amp;#039;s Super Awesome and that there is not a metaphorical tuning fork sticking out of your heart. Staying away from him is the only real way to get over him.   Go if you really think it&amp;#039;ll play out the way you want it to. But if there is a pretty good chance that it&amp;#039;ll actually play out with you getting hammered, having one of those tooth-grindingly awful post-breakup conversations, and potentially going home with him and then hating yourself afterwards, you should avoid the shit out of that party.   Plus, he&amp;#039;ll wonder where you are, which is always good. You might be at home watching Frasier with your cat, but as far as he knows, you&amp;#039;re at the 40/40 Club having double seven and sevens with Ryan Gosling.   If you look like you&amp;#039;re trying too hard, that&amp;#039;ll be eye-rollingly obvious. You want to look great, but do not show up in an outfit that a convention model would wear at a car show. Err on the side of low-key. No platform shoes. Get a blowout if you want, but that should be the only special thing you do. Never underestimate the power of tight jeans and a T-shirt.   Prepare yourself for anything. He could be with another girl. Or a guy. Or a clown. Or a mailbox. Or be much fatter, or thinner, or a centaur. OK, he is probably not a centaur, but just prepare for whatever.   Have one (1) (uno) (eins) drink. Are you listening? One. Here is where the tried-and-true DOLE method comes into play: Drink One, Leave Early. This is the acronym that will save your life/dignity. When you are in a party situation with an ex, divert from DOLE at your own peril \u2014 just know that you might end up walking the 50 blocks home from Chinatown to Chelsea, crying, with blood in your shoe. Not that this has happened to anyone. Whose name is mine.   And don&amp;#039;t bring a super hot guy to make him jealous, or make out with some rando on the dance floor to make him jealous, or fellate a nearby Big Bird to make him jealous. You shouldn&amp;#039;t be hooking up with someone else for any purpose besides your own pleasure. A joyless makeout session will (probably) only make you feel more like roadkill. On the other hand, if you&amp;#039;re doing it because you actually want a rebound \u2014 and not to put on a show for your ex \u2014 go for it.   Vaya con dios.   Follow Anna on Twitter.   Image via Getty  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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