Friday, September 19, 2003

Here’s to Absent Hosts

Last sunday we had friends over for brunch and lunch.  The house was full of people and food and music, and as is typical of me at such times, I was a little hyper.  After all, there were souflees to bake, yuca to fry, carnitas to shred and a dutch oven in which it had been cooked to be deglazed for the gravy, bean salad and fruit salad and oh goodness so many other details to attend to - so when someone thrust a packet of photos into my hand I went through them rather perfunctorily.  Nice photos of several of my friends at my house; their babies were cute, the house looked great… I didn’t even notice that neither Kel nor I appeared in any of the pictures.  It was hours later that I got a second look and the whole story: we had left for LA to visit my parents.  Nool and Deb were visiting from the Windy Apple; Dave and Kimmela had been recruited to visit our diabetic cat and poke her with needles, and Andy and Heidi were in town for the evening from the wilds of upper east Berkeley.  Everybody came to our place and hung out for an hour or so, the three under-three-year-old girls trying to play with Rufus, our breathtakingly passive cat, the adults testing our couches for softness, hidden doors and secret treasure.  From the photos, everybody had a great time - even Rufus. It was a cozy little party, and I hadn’t just missed it - I hadn’t lifted a finger to make it happen.

It’s nice to realize that you can host a decent party from 500 miles away.  It’s just a little weird to discover that it’s happened after the fact, when I’ve got a house full of 25 friends on whose behalf I’d utterly exhausted myself in preparing for another party.  Maybe next time I should send out invitations and just leave town.  It looks like people would enjoy themselves anyway and I wouldn’t have so many slices in my thumb from the mandoline.