In the last year, I've had exactly five guests: my father, my brother, my best friend from grad school, my best friend at design school, and Melissa, the Crazy Cat Sitter, so (affectionately) named because of her ability to analyze, in enormously gratifying detail, exactly why our cats are so adorable.
No matter how bad my house may have been in the past year, my dad, brother, and grad school friend, have seen it much, much worse. My design school friend is one of those blissfully serene and equally generous types for whom unkind thoughts don't come easily. And then there is Melissa, who saw us through the worst of the worst this past year in more ways than one; she was unfailingly there for us and for our beloved Mau-Mau, who passed this June. No matter how bad, disorganized, messy, disgusting, or just plain gross the place got, Melissa not only pretended not to notice, she did so convincingly, thus earning a permanent place on my gratitude list. This is a woman I trusted with my pre-Quest refrigerator. If that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.
So when I finally did clean the refrigerator, I thought of Melissa. I wanted to call her up and tell her: you have to come over! You won't recognize the fridge without all the weird, multi-colored growths! Of course I was over-confident, figuring it would take a couple weeks to get the place in good enough shape to invite Melissa over for a social visit. A couple months was more like it, but what does it matter now? I was finally able to extend an invitation this week.
Next week we're looking forward to having our favorite "couple friends" over for brunch, then the weekend after that I have a talkfest scheduled chez moi with a friend I haven't seen in an age. It's great to feel comfortable having people over again; I'm excited about re-connecting in a way I haven't for a long, long time, and am looking forward to the good times ahead.
Happy weekend, everyone!
