Company is Coming
Judy Conlin
I have lived here for almost 40 years and maybe had company once every 5 years or so. I love company, but because I am a type A personality, I have filled my days (and evenings) with all kinds of activities. I love them all, but I am having trouble juggling them as I gracefully (ha ha! ) age. Because my 90th birthday is looming I have suddenly become quite popular and people I haven’t seen in ages are coming to visit. Believe me, I love the attention, but I am out of practice in the entertaining guest’s business.
First of all, I am like Martha in the Bible, who spent hours preparing for visits from Jesus and his disciples, complained because her sister wasn’t more help and was rebuked because she was too busy to listen to the visitors. Her sister, however, was among them listening to every word. Like Martha, I knocked myself out cleaning, cooking and preparing for my last company and when they came, I was so tired I fell asleep in my chair when we had time to converse. I hope I learned a lesson from that, but it is so hard.
There are certain things that must be done when overnight guests are expected. If you were smart enough to wash and replace the bed linens after the last guests left (and I was), it doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to be done. Those cats think the guest bedroom is theirs most of the time and they play on that bed, bring their toys up on that bed, and of course, sleep on that bed tracking leaves from outside through their private cat door. Beebe especially, with his long-haired coat leave piles of black hair on it as well as on every other piece of furniture in the house, no matter how often he is brushed. At a bare minimum, the bedspread must be rewashed and replaced and the guest room door shut.
Dust has to be removed from surfaces and floors need to be cleaned. Food supplies need to be brought in. The list continues no matter how much I try to cut it down. I am not washing the cat nose marks off the windows this time, nor am I spending endless hours decorating. I may just leave those easter decorations up a few weeks longer.
As time draws nearer for my niece and her friend to arrive, my resolve is crumbling. I am so sick of these bunnies all over the house and the giant Easter basket on the kitchen island. I have replenished that thing a dozen times and my waistline is growing. Maybe I could leave a few things that represent spring up and get rid of the Easter theme.
I grab my decorating books and retire to my bedroom with its cathair covered bed. I am sneezing and turning pages when Nurse Judy, my aggravating alter ego, walks in. I tell her what I’m doing and she laughs at me. “You don’t need those books,” she says. “There are 3 major holidays in May- May Day, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. Just pick one and use that as your theme and remember I get a new outfit to match whichever holiday you pick.” She strolls off. Everything is always about her,
I look at the three holidays that she mentioned. Mother’s Day is out. The only thing that I am a mother to is my 2 cats and they have never ever given me a card on Mother’s Day. Besides, the only decoration I have for that holiday is a flag that has a mother cat and a kitten on it. That would not be adequate.
Memorial Day is at the end of the month, and they’ll be gone before that. I do have red, white and blue decorations but that weekend is also the Acting Up Players program at Theatre Tallahassee as well as my birthday. I will be much too busy to decorate for that.
That leaves May Day. It wins by default. I think about this. I know I used to make little baskets and put wildflowers in them and put them on people’s doorknobs when I was a kid, but this doesn’t seem appropriate. The only other thing is the Maypole. That is a big undertaking. Does anyone out there know how to construct a Maypole?
I f I don’t hear from anyone, how bad would it be to just leave the Easter decorations up for a few more weeks? I promise I’ll wash the chocolate off of most things.
More later,
Judy www.nursejudyinfo.com
