Lumpy Coffee and the Royal Treatment

Captain’s Log    5,737

I had the good fortune last night to have dinner with one of my favorite docents at the museum and his lovely wife.  They live pretty far out on a dark and winding street without good lighting, so the finding the house was challenging.  I loaded the address into the GPS on my phone and that was helpful.  It was also raining.  By the time I parked the car and walked up the long driveway, I looked (and felt) like a wet puppy.

No problem!  The house was warm and welcoming.  They had never had a vegetarian in their home before (or a filthy liberal hippie scum either for that matter), so we had some interesting discussions.  Respectful to the max.  The fellow admitted that he had leaned toward the Tea Party until this last fiasco with those fart heads in Washington.  He is much softer now and considers himself an independent.  That is MUCH better than claiming affiliation with the Tea Party fools.

They made a 100% effort to make a lovely meat-free meal.  Nobody toppled over from lack of meat.  The beer was cold and good (and not designer, thank goodness).  And the pumpkin cake for dessert was divine.

The main course was chile relleno casserole.  It was amazing! 

So very yummithy!

I was treated like royalty.  That’s nice every now and then.  But just every now and then.  I am definitely a common person.  I have peasant taste in food and have no penchant for anything sophisticated except excellent freshly-ground coffee.   I also find it distasteful when people say I am complex.  That is simply not true.  Yes, I can multi-task like the wind and have 1,000 thoughts turning all at once, but I truly love plain coffee and vanilla ice cream.  I am so very easy to please and love any gift anyone chooses to give me.  I learned that one early on in life when my mother gave me fly swatters from the bank, key chains from the insurance company, and flashlights from the dry cleaners….wrapped up in plastic bags and duct tape……for Christmas.  I am so grateful she never spoiled my sister and me.  We never learned to be competitive about things.  We learned to admire intellect and talent over material expression.  My mother’s favorite saying was “Get out there and make your own fun.”  And that was true.  She was not about to entertain me or buy me expensive toys.  I was on my own and became extremely independent at a very young age.

The downside of this is that I have an extremely hard time asking anyone for anything.  I also have a hard time being treated like royalty.  In addition to last night’s lovely meal, I had an appointment downtown earlier in the day with the royal treatment too.  When I got to the office, the staff proceeded to make fresh coffee for me and deliver it to me with a full array of creams and sugars.  I am just not used to that.  I am used to doing everything by myself.  I actually felt a little awkward.  But the gods had fun in mind too.  When I poured the creamers into my coffee, they curdled into one large nasty lump.  So much for the sophisticated effort to bring me special coffee.  We all had to laugh.  My host blushed from her shoulders to the top of her head, but hey……it was really funny.  I insisted it was fine to just forget about the coffee, but they made more and tried it again…..with non-dairy creamers this time.  It was hilarious!

I am very grateful for the efforts people made yesterday to make me feel honored.  I was gracious accepting it all.  I was grateful.  I am also grateful I was not raised to expect this treatment from others.  I consider someone’s time and attention gifts of the heart, and how much of that is shared is not mine to control.

Wow!  Chile relleno casserole and lumpy coffee certainly brought about an interesting entry today.  I wonder what the rest of the day will bring.