We've had this conversation before. I don't know how the topic came up, but like many of our conversations, we ramble, go in and out of all sorts of subjects. Maybe I was talking about friends and friendship, or what was planned for the weekend. Maybe they were talking of their regular rituals. We have different lives, different circumstances. I know that we don't understand each other's lives. Different states, different set ups, different views.
"You could make that when you entertain." they said.
"I don't entertain."
"But don't you have people over?"
"No."
"But if people come over.."
"We meet at the front gate and we go to one of the umpteen Vietnamese restaurants around the corner."
"But you're a good cook..."
"Who doesn't have the set up to have people over. I can't remember the last time I had a friend over." (Actually, that's a lie, but it was about two years ago.)
"You have a table and chairs."
"My laptop lives on my table. The chairs are in the spare room."
"But.."
"I have a disparate friendship group. If you're out of a 30-minute radius, they're not going to come over. Also, being single, you're often a spare leg."
"But..."
"I don't entertain. I don't really know how to. And I'd have to clean up. That's hard. "
"How strange."
"Welcome to my world."
But it's not so strange. I've never entertained, choosing to meet at a nearby location - if not, it's takeaway on your lap, after I've dug the couch out from under the crap. I look at the wine glasses and extra coffee mugs and the like, knowing that they've been carted around from share house to share house. Glassware, napery, crockery, that were bought with the thought they'd be used for 'entertaining', rather than for collecting dust.
Circumstances, eh...
