There’s nothing like to holidays to remind you that, no matter how hard you try to control all the elements, you just can’t.
The fit hits the shan from all directions, and just being Christmas Eve is no way to narrow the scope of its impact. When things go sideways, it doesn’t matter that it’s the holidays.
The only thing that matters is the trajectory. Who’s it landing on? Why?
I’m not gonna tell you about tonight, why I’m where I’m at, but suffice to say I’ve gone through a minefield of human emotions in the last five hours, and I’m glad the shrapnel’s not more impaling than it has been.
I spent two whole days preparing for my night. One phone call later, everything comes apart.
And that’s Christmas, man. Accidents, chaos, the whole meal deal.
I don’t really want to tell you what went down. You don’t need to know.
All you need to know is, I thought I had EVERYTHING under control. EVERY DISH was prepared before my guests arrived. I even remembered to remove the hanging-to-dry panties from my shower, for crying out loud!
I thought THIS was that PERFECT night of entertaining.
How wrong I was. Ho, ho, ho. The phone rings– BAM. Done! Instead of staggering home at 1am, the guests are leaving at 10. So be it.
That said, could’ve been SO MUCH WORSE.
I’m just here doing a PSA to remind you: We control fuck all. We try, but we don’t.
Things go sideways. It happens. No matter how much we plan, people get in accidents, they die, mishaps happen, trains derail. The whole shebang.
All we can do? Stand by, watch, and when the chaos subsides, we can respond.
With that? Not too heartbroken that this might be the last Christmas dinner I host for a long time, thanks to my impending island move. But… maybe it’s better to be the guest, for a while.
Like I said: The things you don’t know about coulda been so much worse. I’m so grateful it ended where it did.
So, Merry Christmas to us all. May better days be ahead.