Holiday review

Was sick over the three day weekend with a horrible cold . . . still struggling with it a bit today. The weekend was not terribly restful . . . and maybe it should have been.

I have this horrible habit of filling up every free weekend with some sort of activities that I can’t do during the week. Let’s help C find a new apartment on Saturday! Let’s go visit my parents on Sunday! Let’s invite people over for dinner Monday night! Since people are coming over, let’s finally get curtains for the living room! Now we have to rearrange the furniture in the bedroom. And we have to rearrange stuff in the kitchen.

Yes, we did all of the above, except visit my parents, because I just felt horrible on Sunday and did not feel like being around a crowd. Every year, some of our family in Philly come down to visit my parents and I was not up to making small talk. Yesterday, my husband and I were running around like fiends trying to tidy up the house for dinner, and I was trying to play Martha Stewart in making a rather gourmet dinner, using the stuff I learned in my cooking class.

The weekends are the only time there is to see people. Everyone is so busy that weeknights are out for hanging out, and people plan out their weekends well in advance, so you have to try to get on the schedule early. We hadn’t seen this particular couple since a Super Bowl party in January, and they had invited us over to dinner several times, and I felt like it was time for us to reciprocate. They hadn’t seen our new condo yet either, thus the mad rush to make everything look respectable.

I never felt like my mom so much as I did yesterday. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I was cleaning the bathroom and my mom’s face peeked out. I was even dressed like her – jeans, t-shirt and old oxford shirt with sleeves rolled-up. I remembered growing up seeing her running around cleaning up for company coming soon, her worrying about food and how the house looked – since, like me, she hated housework and its many forms, but is keen to have the house look spotless on the rare occasion that outsiders pop in to the inner sanctum.

Dinner went well, if slightly awkward . . . I never know if I am doing the entertaining thing right, am lousy at the transitions from appetizers to going to the table to dessert. I think I try too hard . . . I have an idea in my head on how things should go, and when they don’t go that way I get so flustered. I know that these friends would not have cared if I had made hot dogs and beans, or ordered in pizza, but I did want to show that I thought them worthy of effort . . . they’ve been such great friends to us over the years, I did not want to do things halfway. They seemed to enjoy everything, though . . .

Sorry for not posting in a while, guys! Hope everyone else had a great holiday.