Tuesday Dinner... Farewell

[rowanf]

Back in the early 1990s, my friend Linnea decided she couldn't manage to do two subscription dinners a month. She asked me to take over Fourth Tuesday and I have been doing a monthly dinner party every since. It has been a wonderful and rewarding exercise. I have loved having my friends gather, new friends come in and meet the old, all in an atmosphere of hospitality and good cheer.

However, after 18 years or so I have been finding myself increasingly burnt out as each month rolls around and I have to plan, shop, prep and cook for 12-16 people. This month, because of our trip, I had declared that we were buying take-away pizza. Folks still signed right up.

You'd think that buying pizza would be stress-free. I thought so. But evidently I didn't do it right and someone chided me for not buying their pizza of choice. I spent two very unpleasant and stressful hours stewing about it and decided that this was the last straw. I just don't have the energy to coordinate a dinner party every single month.

So, last night was the last Fourth Tuesday dinner. It had a good run, going all the way back to when Linnea started them in 1978 or so. I have no desire to lose touch with my friends and I hope that things will work out. I'm really sad about it. But I needed to shed the stressor in my life and it is good that I did.

Comments

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't been so burnt out already I'm sure the email from my friend wouldn't have hit me so hard. It isn't her fault really, just the last straw with so many others had piled under it.

And it was fun for a long time to do that dinner party. I like to cook and I really enjoy the table full of happy folks sharing good food and conversation.