This past weekend I entertained two of my friends from high school and college years… well, I would have liked to have entertain them, but none of my usual ‘weekend guests’ plans actually panned out.
While not an excuse, I must mention here that 1) we are living in limbo between houses as one is on the market and the other is a tear down… literally, 2) to the point of their arrival, I had only spent 5 days that month in town, two of which were working on the before and aft of a wedding and 3) due to issue #1, many of my belongings (including things I actually need) are in storage. Thereby the saga begins…
It is, admittedly, very poor form to invite friends to stay with you and then not actually be home upon their arrival. Poor form indeed. I arrived back in town a full two hours after my guests arrival. Luckily, they were able to squeeze in a visit with other relatives and friends while waiting on me. So late was I, that the dinner I had planned to prepare was postponed for another day while they ate out with the above mentioned friends and family. Oops. I must defend myself a bit here… car trouble delayed our leaving town that morning, which pushed our entire work schedule off, then it was blown entirely while we aided our daughter’s search for a sold out lab book she needed for a college class… and by aided, I mean we paid for it.
Finally I arrived and my husband retreated to the other house to allow us some ‘girl time’… I’m sure he thought that it was for his own safety and sanity. He would be correct. It was in the few minutes between my arrival and my friends’ that I realized that I had no clean sheets for the twin beds we had ’staged’ in our daughter’s bedroom. She took her bed to college with her a couple of years before when she moved out of the dorm. I borrowed twin beds from my sister to use while selling the house. We only had one set of sheets for the beds and I had NO IDEA where they were. Too late to run to the department store now. That was also about the time that I realized that the lamp from the other guest room (formerly our son’s) had no lamp on the night stand as I had snatched it to put in an apartment he had years ago. What a way to welcome guests… one in the semi-dark, the other with a king-sized sheet set on a twin bed… looking like a dressed up Olson Twin, all swallowed in fabric!
The rest of the weekend, while fun, was hardly gracious! Meals were slapped together, I had to squeeze a few hours of work in here and there, and nothing was ‘on schedule’. Perhaps that is what made it fun. Flying by the seat of our pants much as we did in high school and college. We’ve known each other for so long, been through dating, weddings, the birth of children, the death of all but one of our parents, one of us has suffered the loss of her husband, but we three have been there for each other through it all. So I’m guessing that darkness and excess sheeting are easily overlooked. Not sure about the chihuahua ‘treasure’ left in one room as they departed…
Can’t wait until November when we will all have the opportunity to be together again!
RLH6Hb Excellent article, I will take note. Many thanks for the story!