in which mod vinyl chairs are purchased, brunch guests are forgotten, and one of us eats a hot dog

yesterday, at the university surplus store’s tent sale, we found the coolest blue vinyl retro chairs and a file cabinet. having struggled last year with fitting a four-drawer file cabinet into the back of the volvo, with much damage to the car, the file cabinet, and ourselves, we decided to go in with a friend for a few hours of a u-haul van. so this morning we get up early, pick up our friend, and move our stuff and hers with no trouble.

however.

as we are unloading the chairs into the house, i catch a glimpse, through the windshield of the van, of our friends d. and h. what are they doing here? i wonder to myself, and then…i remember that in fact, we invited them to come over for brunch this morning. they are 45 minutes late—not unusual, but quite fortunate this time, as we have only just arrived back at the house and would have been out if they come on time. much embarrassed smiling and stuttering ensues, but resourceful mr. boot saves the moment by enlisting poor d., only recently recovered from being hit by a dump truck (really), to help carry the file cabinet into the house, which he limpingly but good-naturedly does.

now, forgetting guests is not the worst of my dinner-party faux pas. it’s not nearly as bad as my very first dinner party, in which i poisoned my guests with a not-quite-cooked hambone in the red beans. or the time the gourd-candles set fire to the mantelpiece during an autumn-themed buffet dinner (i failed to follow martha stewart’s final instruction: peel away the gourds' flesh after hollowing them out and filling them with wax. evidently it’s a fire hazard). this wasn’t even as stressful as the time my unflappable roommate the ruminating slav burned the salmon during her first dinner party (i’m really not sure why this was so stressful for me, since it was her party. but still.).

anyway, this wasn’t so bad: d. and h. went with us to return the van and we went out to brunch. it turned out to be a rather fun day. we showed our support for the seeds fundraiser festival (a local organic gardening program for inner-city kids), where we were quite impressed with displays of double dutch skill; and mr. boot ate a hot dog. kind of departing from our (my) new experiments with macrobiotics, and not nearly as…exciting…as fairly odd mother's hot dog experience, but nevertheless much enjoyed.