a couple of days before her birthday party i went over and hung out with her. she had two very nice green chairs in the yard. they were comfortable and attractive and i oohed and aahed. she told me that she had gotten birthday money from her mom and spent $30 each on the chairs. they were very attractive but i would never spend that much and i realized maybe that was why her house was so much nicer than mine, inside and out, because she would spend $30 on a lawn chair. while we sat in them it occurred to me that she might have more than one guest beside herself at her party. I hoped she would anyway. I wondered where they all would sit. the chairs inside her house were not easily carried out to the yard.
on the day of her party i decided i would try to buy a couple less expensive lawn chairs as a bday gift and bring a couple other less attractive chairs which were my own yard chairs to her house for the guests. i was somewhat proud of my decision and on the day of her party i headed in that direction with four lawn chairs in the car.
Husbear and I had plans to accomplish before her party started. there was another party we were to attend. when we got to this party it became clear that there were only two yard chairs there and already four adults. where was everyone going to sit? we took the chairs out of the car and shared them with this party for a couple hours. at one point the host noticed my white chair was, although dry, somewhat dirty with mold stains and discolorations. he brought out a clorox wipe and tried to clean it. he was able to lighten the seat a bit and i was a little chagrined by the experience. i had planned on cleaning the chair once i had arrived at my friend's party, when i first got there and no one was there but her and me. i had planned on doing it quickly so she wouldn't even notice that it had been dirty. but this guy beat me to it and i was so embarrassed that i made sure to sit in it the rest of the time so no one else would be subjected to the filth.
after we ate the best corn of western mass we gathered our four chairs and went to my friend's house, arriving two hours before she expected others to come. the Husbear left to meet with other people somewhere else, leaving us two, six lawn chairs, a dog and a house full of nice indoor chairs. we enjoyed each others company for hours, relaxing on the green chairs, sitting inside on the couch, occasionally sitting on my birthday gifts (but not often) and sitting on my dirty chair not ever. soon two other ladies showed up and we spent a while inside chatting and then we went outside and sat on her fun kiddie pool and then we played a little badminton. then, as we were all ready to begin the competitive game, Husbear appeared again, with two other fun people and we all milled about until slowly, everyone settled and sat on all the outdoor chairs except me. by the time i had helped everyone get a cocktail and brought some ginger ale out to Husbear all six chairs were spoken for: Husbear and birthday girl, two hot ladies and the cool traveling couple.
i felt a little sorry for myself. i had travelled many a mile carrying about chairs with the idea to help facilitate friends with parties. Not only helping my dear friend, who couldn't buy 6 $10 chairs for her party, but had to buy 2 $30 chairs for the chic factor but also helping some folks who i think are nice but whom i was helping out with the chairs just for the kindness and follow up karmic thank you but when the day was brought to the final sit down i had nothing but the awkward experience of dragging a heavy, falling apart, beat up kitchen chair that was hard to carry through the vestibule so that i could join the party people in their chairs outside.
what's up with that?
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