Diaries I Read:
On Friday, B got his broker to go pick up our new bookcase from the store in his new truck. That was nice of him. So when I got home from work, there it was in our �library,� looking great but in the wrong place entirely. So B and I carried one couch out of the room, moved the bookcase, moved the smaller couch that was left, then carried that one out of the room and carried the other one back in, moved that to another place, then decided it was too big and carried it back out of the room, carried the smaller one into the room, and stared at the room for quite a while.
Me: �It just doesn�t look the way I wanted it to look.�
B: �How did you want it to look?�
Me: �Like, cozy and warm and welcoming and bright.�
B: Perplexed look. �Hmmm.�
Me: �Did we try putting the big couch there?�
B: �Yeah, we tried that.�
Me: �And why didn�t we like it?�
B: �It just didn�t look good.�
Me: �Oh. Okay.�
We ended up moving the couch one more time and found some random furniture items in the garage that we hadn�t yet found a place for. Then I put some flowers and other decorations in there and then we decided we needed a lamp. So we went to Target and spent too much money on lamps plus a million other things, and now I think the library looks pretty good. It�s cozy. It looks good.
Later that night, I went through all my boxes of books and put them on the shelves. It looked like the shelves were so big and my boxes of books so small, and I thought there was going to be a lot of empty shelf space, but I was wrong. They fill it up almost completely. First I had to just get all of the books onto the shelf, but then I had to take most of them down again because I wanted them in alphabetical order. As I was taking them out of the boxes and putting them on the shelves and then taking them back down to alphabetize them by author before putting them back in their places, I got to look at each one, and they made me so happy. They made me miss reading. As I looked at them, so many of them made me think, �Oh, this one was so good! I should read it again!� So many beautiful books, so little time. But I�m going to try to spend more time reading now. Especially since I have the perfect place to do it.
The next day was our party. We spent all day long cleaning the house. It�s amazing how much work it can take to get a house ready to present to the public, especially when you keep it pretty clean from day to day. I mean, it�s not like we�re slobs. But I guess we were trying extra hard to make a good impression since this was sort of a housewarming party, even though we didn�t call it that. I decided it was time to wipe down the kitchen cabinets since they�re white and a lot of them had little smudges on them. Well, once I started I wished I hadn�t. There are so many cupboards in that kitchen. Seriously, there are like 40 cabinet doors. I�m not kidding. It�s a great thing when it comes to storage space, but it�s not such a good thing when it comes to cleaning. I didn�t really finish all of them.
So, the party. Remember how I was saying before how I haven�t figured out yet how to throw a party and have it go smoothly without stressing out? I still haven�t figured it out. Everything seemed so hectic and crazy for the first hour or so, at least. Part of it was that people just kept showing up and they had food and purses and gifts (gifts!) and they needed to know where to put them and if I had a serving spoon for their coleslaw or salad tongs for their salad, or was there space in the refrigerator for their cake? Then, there were the kids. Oh, the kids.
Part of the problem � no, THE problem � is our friends J and C, who have three little girls, ages 5, 4, and 2. I think I may have mentioned them before. These girls have no manners and receive zero discipline and they are holy terrors every time they�re around. Three beautiful little blonde holy terrors. Anyway, J and C take the kids EVERYWHERE. They do not hire babysitters because a) they�re too cheap and b) they�re just clueless and somehow don�t realize that their children aren�t welcomed in all situations. So, I knew the kids were coming. And they�ve been to our house several times before for parties and the like, so I knew what to expect. The problem is that when our neighbors asked if they could bring their children, I couldn�t say no because then they�d come over and see these other kids and wonder why it wasn�t OK for their kids. So at one point we ended up with about nine kids at the house. That may not sound like very many, but when there are 30 other people over there milling around, and you don�t have any toys to distract them, it felt more like 20 kids.
So the kids were a problem. Luckily, only four of them (three being the aforementioned hellions) stayed throughout the party. But those four were enough. At one point, they decided they were going to play hide-and-seek. Needless to say, I was not thrilled with the idea of them traipsing through the house and hiding in closets and under beds, so I called that game off almost as quickly as it began. But really. Am I being unreasonable, or is it a parent�s responsibility to keep their children in check and under control and not allow them to race through another person�s home? Their lack of discipline with their children really infuriates me, and I could go on and on.
I will leave the subject of children after this. At one point, I put a gate up in front of the stairs to keep the kids from going upstairs. The next thing I know, somebody gasps and I turn around to see J&C�s 2-year-old climbing up the OUTSIDE of the stairwell, holding onto the banister. Like, she�s not even on the steps themselves but on the molding around them! Then, later in the evening (several hours after the three young children should have been taken home for bed), this same child was standing on a kitchen chair when she slipped off the edge of it and cracked the back of her head on its seat before landing on the kitchen floor. Where were her parents? Who knows. UGH.
(B and I have come to the conclusion that we�re finished trying to be polite and the next time we�re just going to tell them that the kids aren�t invited. It�s just not fair to us or our guests, and frankly I�d think they�d have a better time without them. If they�re offended, that�s just too bad. I�m sick and tired of it.)
I�m sorry to keep beating this dead horse, but I just have to say a few more things about J and C. I feel a little guilty bagging on them like this, because they are friends and I do care about them, but sometimes they just amaze me. I�ve figured it out, though. They are two educated people who you�d think would be better adjusted, but when it comes down to it they are simply socially retarded. They just don�t get it. Here are a few more examples. This was a potluck, so everyone brought stuff to go with the BBQ. Most people brought salads or appetizers or desserts or something like that. What does C bring? Soup. Yes, soup that has to be heated on my stove in the middle of all the rest of the chaos. Soup that has to be served in my nice soup bowls instead of the paper plates everyone was using. AND soup that you have to put a half cup of champagne into immediately after serving! Could it be more inconvenient for a party of this type with about 30 people? Example two: We take out all the desserts, which include fruit cobbler, lemon bundt cake, chocolate brownies, and fruit cups. It was a really beautiful spread, and everyone is enjoying it. J: �Hey guys, do you have any ice cream?� Really. Do you go to someone�s home for a party where they�ve offered you a broad selection of desserts and then ask for something else out of their freezer? Come on! Last example and then I�ll get off the subject: End of the party and things are winding down. J again: �Hey dude, can I take some of this meat home?� Of course, B obliges and offers J a ziplock bag, into which J proceeds to put almost half of the leftover meat. It was B, who is the most generous person in the world, especially when it comes to food, who said the next day that he was really annoyed that J took so much since it was B�s absolute favorite dish that he makes only occasionally and that he had spent all day long smoking. J took more than we had as leftovers! They�re just so clueless and rude.
OK, I�m off that topic now. The other problem with the party is that there were just too many people there. Like I said, there were 30 to 40 people there. That�s just a lot of people, especially when several of them are under four feet tall. And they were all from different social groups � there were neighbors, my work friends, our softball friends, our running friends, and then a few randoms. So a lot of people didn�t know each other. Then the other weird thing is that almost all of our neighbors said they were coming, and then only two of them came! Not that we needed any more people, but still. In fact, I had spoken to one woman that morning and she said how excited she was about it, and then another woman CALLED ME to RSVP at about 3:00 that afternoon, and then she didn�t come! It was so weird. I don�t get it.
So that was the party. I didn�t think it was all that much fun. It wasn�t a bad time, but it just wasn�t fun like I�d wanted it to be. I hope everyone else had more fun than I did. And the mess was unbelievable. I thought that since we were using disposable plates and utensils and since people were bringing all the side dishes and stuff that there wouldn�t be many dishes to do and there wouldn�t be much mess. Boy, was I mistaken. I think we used nearly every serving piece, plate, bowl, etc. in my whole house! How does that happen? And then the next day while washing my favorite glass salad bowl in the sink, it slipped out of my hands just a little bit and smashed in the sink. (It was weird � it must have hit at exactly the right spot for it to break.) I cut my hand and my arm. Blech!
So yesterday we went to church and then came home and cleaned our house (including spots on the carpet from little feet and a little greasy hand-print on our wall) and took a nap and went to IKEA (which is a subject that deserves an entry all its own) and bought some dresser drawers for my closet which I haven�t organized for the past seven weeks (or however long we�ve lived in the house now) and put it together (which took a long time) and then I put all my clothes that have been all over the floor and the shelves of my closet for the past several weeks into the drawers so now I have a beautiful, clean, organized closet! (Wow, my grammar check didn�t even identify that as a run-on sentence!)
And then we ate dinner and there was nothing on TV except the Emmys, which we couldn�t care less about, so I went and rented �Anger Management,� which we watched in bed. But I only made it through about one-third of the movie before I was asleep. It�s an OK movie so far.
On another subject entirely, now I�m one week into my diet and I�ve been doing really well. I did cheat on Saturday, though, because I had a margarita (or two) and sampled all of the desserts. Oh well. You only live once. It�s not like I�m fighting obesity or anything (yet).
More later. Something you don�t know about me: I have to get some work done today.
Bzzzzzzzzzz.
Working at home - Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004
Toronto - Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004
On the way to Toronto... - Tuesday, Nov. 09, 2004
A Good Day - Monday, Nov. 08, 2004
Another letter - Thursday, Nov. 04, 2004