Tuesday, April 15, 2008

from yesterday

From yesterday, I did not get to the garden store for pots. So, neither blue nor green pots arrived - and hmmm, yellow, too, Lee Anne? That does sound pretty!

Neither was the complaint written, but I have the forms and the release of lien was done.

It's a start.

We're entertaining today - six for dinner - which I hope will not mean that I get absolutely nothing else done. Further to the 'work like an ant', I should like to add an unshakeability, a casual easiness to hospitality that I don't always manage to pull off. It is not the same thing as negligence, mind you, where carelessness is renamed a lack of fussing. I've noticed, however, that overdoing things can become oppressive. The ten different cheeses instead of one - or two - nice ones, and choice of 3 different desserts and unlimited aperitifs, is just too much.

My goal is to be ok if we run out of food. Not that any of us is in any danger of starving to death. . . . thank God.

Hospitality is such a strange thing. It's another one of those balance points that you can miss on opposite sides: the too little as well as the too much. I tend to miss on the too much side. . . . which causes me to hesitate inviting people over (because it's such a lot of work), which flips me back over to the too little side. Jack [C.S. Lewis] was right when he said we're like drunkards who fall off one side of a horse, only to climb back up and fall off the other.

Here it is 10:30, however, and I have yet to stir towards tackling any of my ant-tasks of the day. Time to move.

1 comment:

prophet said...

UPDATE: OK, so I didn't get much else done the rest of the day, and I didn't succeed in running out of food, but I prepared take-away bags for the guests, and we each had one left-over meal for the next day with no further cooking necessary!

And - having worked much of the day - by the time the guests arrived, there was really nothing to do but enjoy their company. So that was good.

(This gives you a hint of the scope of the problem: I seem to prepare for at least double the number of people expected. And that's down, now, from how I used to do things. . . . .)

Live and learn, though. I'm getting better!