Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

There are places I’ll remember...

Saturday, Jun. 6, 2009
10:29 p.m.
The good news is that the food was delicious. I outdid myself. Seriously. There was fresh-baked baguette, barbecued salmon fillet marinated for hours beforehand in soya sauce, red wine and maple syrup, frozen corn done in the wok with Mexican spices, red, yellow and orange pepper strips also done in the wok with onion, garlic, salt and lime juice, potato salad, and berry pie with ice cream. Copious amounts of wine and beer were drunk. The aforementioned meal was washed down with tea. It was a feast.

The bad news is that I overate, and then drank two cups of tea which caused me to bloat and feel rather terrible. I was in a bitchy mood all evening and took it out on everyone, especially Hubby, who may or may not have deserved it, I’m not sure at this point. Our guests were one of his tennis buddies and his girlfriend, Buddy Boy and two of his friends. At one point, on the back deck, the conversation turned to our plethora of wind chimes, and I started telling the story of how Buddy Boy thinks we have too many, and then we went and bought another in Mexico, when my husband totally disregarded the fact that I was talking, and started showing off the goat bell he bought when we were in Greece. I nearly burst into tears at this point, and had to go to another part of the house to regain my composure.

Then the girlfriend of the tennis buddy would not just sit there and be a guest, but kept jumping up and gathering plates and trying to help, and I felt seriously affronted, as though my job as hostess was being usurped. I told her to sit, and she sat for about 30 seconds, then had to start clearing away things again.

Afterwards, the boys pulled out electric guitars and started to play so loudly I was forced to my refuge in the attic where I thankfully found a sympathetic ear online (way up past his bedtime, I might add) who let me spill out my sorrows, until Hubby came up and said they were going to turn off the amps, and would I come and sing? So I did that, rejoined the party, and the girlfriend and I took turns singing songs while my husband and her boyfriend accompanied. That was okay.

But while I was in my fortress of solitude at the top of the house, she was doing my dishes and putting things away in all the wrong places. I know she meant well and thought she was being helpful, but seriously, folks, this is my house, and I put things where I know they go, not necessarily where a stranger might think they should go, and luckily I asked her to show me where she had stowed things before they left, or I would never have found them again.

Now Hubby and Buddy Boy are watching the hockey game and I am once more in my refuge. I want to take a sabbatical from my life. There is nothing so important going on that I wouldn’t be missed. At least, that’s the way I feel right now. Maybe tomorrow things will look different.



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