Inspired by the chance to get an extra entry in THIS GIVEAWAY, I thought I'd share a character flaw that nags me about myself (is that redundant?). The Reluctant Entertainer poses the questions: "what is it about hospitality or entertaining that bogs you down? Also, do you think your personality type affects your hospitality/entertaining style? "
I LOVE to have people over. L. O. V. E. love it! I love my family, I love my friends, I love food and drinks, I love chatting, I love spontaneous dance parties, I love playing games, I love using my wedding china, I love using my everyday dishes, I love using fancy wine gadgets, I love doing crafty things, I love cooking for people (if you can read, you can cook. plain and simple), I love decorating, I love serving others, I love belly-laughing, I love tackling little house projects, I love having a clean house (though you might not guess it if you took a snapshot of my house at this moment... which leads to that character flaw that I'm half-way hoping you've forgotten I mentioned).
I am lame at keeping the house clean because I am a PROCRASTINATOR! Why do now what you could save for later? Anybody with me? Why would I put away the glass when I finish drinking my water when I'll probably have another drink sometime before the end of the day? Anybody? Anybody? Why put away the sewing machine when I will probably sew something again before 2012?
Bueller.... Bueller... Bueller... ? Anybody? Nobody?
This is a flaw that my Ryan has to the absolute opposite extreme. It takes forever to do a project because every time a particle falls to the floor he busts out the vacuum, then puts the vacuum away, then another particle falls to the floor, then he busts out the vacuum, then he puts the vacuum away, then another particle falls to the floor... you get it. While that is an exaggeration, it is not an exaggeration to say that he will walk outside to throw each piece of garbage away individually right when it surfaces, in lieu of putting it all in a pile to throw away in one trip.
Between the two of us, we are terribly inefficient! I guess you could say we balance each other perfectly... you know... if you put us on one of those science classroom scales. Unfortunately we really rub each other the wrong way in our unique processes of getting stuff done... he is constantly cleaning up after me, and I'm constantly aggravated that the thing I'm looking for that I put in a very specific place has been moved.
I'm going to guess these tendencies come from our upbringings... Ryan's mom (the queen of entertaining, in my eyes) will have all the food for the party prepared (or at least prepped for cooking) days in advance, and the day of the party she gets it all pulled together on a specific timetable with no detail overlooked and is dressed and ready before the first guest turns onto her block! My dad will know the time of a party (and be reminded every day up to the party about the time of the party), and, like clockwork, he will hop onto his lawn-mowing-tractor an hour before the guests are scheduled to arrive, get off the tractor after the third guest has arrived (sweaty, covered in yard clippings, and smelling like swamp), then he will shower, change, and arrive at the party at his own house after most of the guests have arrived (maybe most is an exaggeration with a family of our size... lets say after the first 7 guests have arrived). This is just an example of the polarity of our opposite-ness and a generalization (albeit pretty accurate by my observations).
So these tendencies leave us scrambling when guests are about to arrive. We have a lot to work through. Want to come over for dinner so we can get some semblance of order in our communal spaces?
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