Saturday, November 20, 2004

The Morning After

The wineglasses have been washed, the cheeseboards put away, and the night rehashed 50 times by noon today. *smile* Mr. and Mrs. Poshlust's cocktail party was (I believe) a success. Perhaps not a rip roaring one, but a lovely, comfortable, relaxing sweet evening regardless. To everyone that managed to attend last night, thank you for making the evening so memorable - friends like you (Ian, Laura, Miriam, Adrienne, Christina, James, Amanda, Mike, Miranda, Curtis, Alex ) are what make my world go around, and reassures me that no party will go unattended, no cheese platter un-touched, no wine bottle unopened and no topic of conversation unbreached. And of course, no laughter held in. Thank you all for making it such a perfect evening.. And if anyone is in need of tonnes of homemade pumpkin tarts, chocolate covered strawberries or baked brie.. You know who to come to.

And.. my bone to pick. All aforementioned names are of course excluded from said rant, and Mr. Dave as well, due to his impecable sense of propriety; and calling to let us know he would not be attending. To each and every person whom I handed, emailed or extended an invitation to, be it the handmade, 2 hours a piece invites, the much laboured e-invite, or the considerate "hey, we'd love you to come" invite - who did NOT attend, sans RSVP, or worse, extolled their excitement at attending and did NOT come - shame on you. I cleaned my appartment, I made enough food so that you could enjoy it when you did arrive - I held off on putting out the rest of the food so that when you did come (and I was sure that nobody would be so rude as to NOT call) that you would still have something lovely to eat. I put my time and effort into not only inviting you to a party, but welcoming you into my home, my inner sanctum, and to my circle of friends - shame on you for not having the common courtesy or even effort to come up with a lie as to why you would not be attending. I don't care why you're not going to make it - sick? Tell me. Previous engagments? Tell me. Wanna stay home in your pj's and hang out and watch Fresh Prince reruns? Tell me. But I will be damned if I will ever even consider inviting you to my home again, much less saving any baked brie for you.

*deep breath* Let me put my cheese knife down, and take another deep breath and remember to unclench my jaw. Call me old fashioned, diplomatic, staunch, or hell, call me Emily Post. But I believe in common courtesies - walking old ladies across streets, holding the doors open for women, saying please and thank you, and RSVP-ing to invitations. When somebody takes the time to invite you to a party, it's for a reason. Not only that, but chances are, that if it's a small party, they're inviting you to the exclusion of somebody else. So when you don't show, and don't call - chances are there is somebody with a hell of a lot more manners that might not have attended, but would have had the courtesy to telephone and express their regrets.

That's my lesson for today kids, now Mr. Almost Poshlust is taking me to a movie (The Take) and then to see Jim Bryson play at the Black Dog. Again, thank-you to everyone who made last night such a success, it would be my pleasure to have you in my home again.
Ciao!

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