The stars have come down from the heavens to twinkle in my back yard, giving me a moments beauty as I leave for work. Once dawn breaks green is a far better color to cover the earth than white, I tell you. Moisture in the air softens the landscape but it hasn't been hot enough for the humidity to be oppressive. In fact it's been absolutely gorgeous, mostly.
Rain was predicted for the day of the party. I kind of hoped that it would rain. I admit it, I was pissed. Miles started calling about mid morning. I didn't answer the phone. Then, about a half an hour before people were supposed to arrive I left the back door unlocked, took my laundry and went into town. “Let them shift for themselves,” I thought; and if I'm lucky maybe they'll clean the vines off of the deck.
I didn't hurry but did my standard Sunday ritual at the Upland, shuttling between the laundromat and the bar. I even stayed a little longer than usual. Not just to emphasize my passive aggressive statement; there were people there I hadn't seen in a long time, I was having a good time. Jackie was unable to make it so I had no one that I'd invited to be there for.
The yard was full of cars when I got home. Miles strode forward to greet me as I rounded the house. “Steve, it's good to see you,” he said. “We were wondering where you were.”
I grabbed him in a hug and said, “Don't ever do that again” into his ear, then released him.
“Whaa...?”
“Don't ever tell me I'm having a party two days beforehand. Don't ever tell me I'm having a party period,” I said and walked away.
I made sure that everyone knew that I'd had no advance warning on this thing, for the benefit of the others in the planning committee, and by way of apology for my lack of preparations. No one was offended. I don't think anyone even noticed. And that was that, the rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent having a good time by all, including me. Good people, good food and gorgeous weather. It wasn't Morris' sister who was coming, it was Betty, Morris' mother. That was a nice surprise. Miles was so contrite for the rest of the day that I almost felt sorry for him.
As the guests were leaving someone turned and said, “Thanks for hosting.” I had to smile to myself because I didn't host. But then I looked at the back yard and realized that I had, after all. It wasn't bad, several of the women had cleaned a little and Betty had done a sink load of dishes against my objections, bless her heart, but there was still work to do. The vines never got cleaned off of the deck either. We just didn't use the deck.
No comments:
Post a Comment