rowanf | Tuesday Dinner... Farewell

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.