But I Wasn’t Invited
Dec 08
Posted: under Anecdotes.
Tags: Christmas, party
Last night my wife, Kathy, and I hosted the women’s Bible study Christmas party. Not being a woman, and by inference not invited, my options included:
1) drop in on Darrell (taking him up in an invite)
2) go Christmas shopping
3) act as a waiter
4) disappear to the bedroom to finish up some grading before the next day’s final exam
I hesitated to take option 1 since I had a sore throat and he has two kids, and I didn’t want to risk infecting them. This of course turned out to be a lame excuse since one of the ladies brought her 11 year old daughter, and another brought her month old daughter, so it was two kids at Darrell’s house or two kids at my house.
As for the second option I didn’t want to waste gas so I did the Christmas shopping on the way home from Rock Valley College. Since my wife does the vast majority of our Christmas shopping there’s not much left for me to do. So this quick stop delayed me just enough for my wife to call me and ask me to stop by the bank and then swing over to pick up one of the ladies coming to the party. If I hadn’t stopped to shop I’d have already been home before she called.
The first two options were also out of the question after guests started to arrive. Both cars got blocked in so I had to stay home.
I explained to the ladies later in the evening that I had the option of acting as a waiter, but chose not to on the grounds that I would probably spill something and ruin the evening. They seemed to buy that excuse.
I included option 4 in my actual participation. I helped move furniture, managed coats, directed parking, made myself generally helpful while trying to maintain my relative invisibility, finished my grading, directed traffic out of our driveway, and helped cleanup the house afterwards.
Overall it seemed the ladies had a delightful time. It was good to hear all the laughter in the house (although it seemed loudest while I was alone in the bedroom grading assignments). And Kathy, my wife, seemed please about the outcome of the evening (which was all I was really concerned about). Kathy thanked me for sticking around and being helpful.
Tracy Henness
