RDP #36: HOSPITABLE TOO EARLY – LATER IS BETTER
It was 11 in the morning when my granddaughter, daughter in law, and this month’s boyfriend of granddaughter showed up. I wandered out into the living room in my nightgown and barefoot, stepped in a pool of water by the dog’s dish (they like to paddle — don’t ask) and said “Hi,” while trying to wipe the sleep from my eyes.
Pass the half-and-half.
I wasn’t actually asleep, but I also wasn’t awake. I had been plugging in all the rechargeable devices near my bed. The Kindle. The iPad mini. The Bluetooth speaker. The MacBook Air. I hadn’t arrived at the “getting dressed” part of my morning. I generally don’t get hospitable before I find my underwear and socks.
And coffee. And toast. And jam.
“Oh, I was sure you’d be up,” she said. I wonder what made her think that? I go to bed late and I read even later. And I’m retired. No matter. I am definitely up at this point.
“I was up, I said, trying to find my hospitality where I was sure it belonged. “I was unwinding wires. Trying to figure out where each wire went.”
I am always willing to be hospitable but I have to admit, I feel better about it when I have my socks and underwear on. Meanwhile, thunder was roaring, the dogs were barking, and I seriously needed coffee. Garry was asleep or, if he was smart, he was pretending to be asleep.
Recharging everything!
I cannot be truly hospitable without coffee. And an English muffin. These are the fundamental underpinnings to basic friendly openness. It’s not personal. It’s just caffeine.
Now it is quiet. The pouring rain has backed off. I’ve mopped up the water thrown around by the dogs. I’m dressed in clothing including socks AND underwear. I’ve written two articles and responded to comments and I’m pretty sure I need a nap.
I don’t know if that is hospitable, but a nap sounds good right now. Anyone want to join me? As a note, with all the telephones around? Consider calling on your way over. You know. Give me a brief shining moment to put some clothes on. I could just as easily have been in the shower or on the toilet. Just a thought.
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Categories: #Photography, Daily Prompt, Humor
PLAY TAPS FOR ME – Marilyn Armstrong 
TOTALLY UNHINGED – Marilyn Armstrong 
HAPPENSTANCE JUST HAPPENS – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I’m not a fan of uninvited guests either. I prefer to be up, dressed and with a moderately tidy house before people come. I wouldn’t call on someone on the spur of the moment myself, they might be busy, they might be sleeping, they might not even be home. It just makes sense to call first. Even better I like to make a date to visit someone or have them visit me, then I can be all prepared with a moderately tidy house and something nice to offer them with their tea or coffee.
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I haven’t shown up uninvited anywhere since I came back from Israel in 1987. Back there, a lot of people didn’t have phones, and they hadn’t invented mobile phones, so there was no choice. But I wouldn’t do that today unless the house was on fire. Maybe it’s a generational thing.
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Coffee first, for anything, please. I live on the other end of time spectrum–sleeping in is 6:30 or 7 for me. But please, do not call and definitely do not drop by after 8 pm. It will be completely up to chance as to my level of civility. Years of being on call, I wake up and adjust quickly for actual emergencies or urgency. Chatting or a social call does not fit that definition. I think my relatives are pretty well trained. I had a medical partner who I never did get trained. He’d call me after 9 to “chat” about practice issues.
Oh well.
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I like to at least have time to straighten out the covers on the sofa and make sure the dogs aren’t crazier than usual. Also, I don’t like wandering around without so much as a pair of panties. I’m a little mature for that.
Yeah, and coffee. I NEED coffee.
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I may be without panties, but hard to tell with the sweat pants that I generally pull on when I get up. Charming, no. Functional, yes.
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I don’t need to be fancy. Just … not semi-naked. I’m way too mature for that look.
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Likewise.
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I am not a fan of uninvited guests- the drop ins- just call or text- give me a heads up!
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I like to be dressed in clothing and having something on my feet. I can cope with temporary coffee withdrawal, but in a nightgown, wearing no underwear or socks is a bit raw for my age and stage.
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With ya!!!! 🙄
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I do not encourage visitors without notice, period. I’m grumpy without sleep and go to sleep very late and get up many times during the night, so just do not want anything messing with what sleep and dreams I do get. I don’t even put a phone number for my tarot business on my business cards or site and have clients make appointments through emails or downtown if we happen to meet there. There’s a time for everything. I like the British Regency habit of having at-home hours, so people could pay calls pretty much at that time only without an invitation to dinner etc., and the butler would check with you or me to see if we are ‘at home’ to that person at that time.
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I still like the dog with “attitude” to greet unwanted guests.
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We just got three used cats and they are big–two twelve pounds each, and the fat little lady is about fifteen–but they stay indoors. Every other house near us has dogs, and the little private drive that goes to a few houses has (my) giant signs posted about PRIVATE PROPERTY and BEWARE OF DOG. I wish we got trick or treaters though, but we’re just a little too far up a hill for the kids to know about–maybe we’ll stake out a litte booth on the street or something this year.
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We don’t get trick or treaters. I sort of miss them … but I sort of don’t. We had such an overdose of them when we lived in Boston, I was glad the T&T-ers don’t bother with this area. Houses are too far apart and there are no streetlights or sidewalks. I wouldn’t let my own granddaughter go out on these streets. We took her into town where they have lights! These streets are not safe for nighttime walkers.
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It’s pretty much the same here, but they seem to drive the kids to a little neighbourhood and then hover with the lights on while the kids go to the several houses right down the street from us. I liked seeing that at least some kids came to some houses near us last year–I used to love it myself, back in the days where the worst urban myth you ran into was the old fear of razorblades in apples–as if we couldn’t have seen the scar if anyone put one in!
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If we had sidewalks, I wouldn’t mind, but cars come up the road out of Rhode Island at insane speeds. There are a lot of lethal crashes on this road — more than any other in the state — because of the twisting and poor lighting. Best take the kids to safer places.
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Kind of nice to have a little warning before the visit. We were up early too. They are working on the road and these guys like to start early “7:00 am”. It’s the first cool day day they’ve had to get this work done. So I’m ready for a nap too but decided to go downstairs and paint.
Leslie
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I’m beginning to wake up. I need to get some material prepared for the rest of the month when I’m not going to be around to write much.
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You are so productive. I don’t know how you do it…
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I think of stuff. Instead of having a conversation — Garry can’t hear me anyway — I write it down. When Garry can hear, maybe this pattern will change.
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I’m sure it will change, but for the better for both of you.
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There are some things that people do not realise. I love the workers that ring our bell at 7.00 in the morning when we are still in bed. Shuffle to the door and they have to get into our heating cellar for some reason. Of course they call ring anyone’s bell, but we are ground floor on the left – is that a collection point for stray maintenance men?
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Answer? Yes. It’s like being “A” in the list of anything. They ALWAYS call us first … assuming they call.
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This is when you want a dog with “attitude” to greet those unwanted visitors.
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I don’t get why people don’t call first. Text first (if one reads texts). Lets one know that somebody is determined to ‘social’; particularly in the MORNING. Say something like “Hey! I thought I’d drop in later (and maybe even give a time). Will that be CONVENIENT?” I mean to me? That’s just good manners. Not saying your people don’t have manners mind. I had a woman I know call me at 10:30 a.m. and say “Did I wake you?” after it took me the required amount of time to get to the phone. And although it was rather sarcastic (although true), I replied “No. I’ve been up since 5 a.m., I’m just moving SLOW.” (hello. She’d met me. She knows the degree of slow I am). And what’s wrong with sleeping until 10:30 or 11 or heck, even 1 p.m. if one wants to and has the freedom to do that. Nothing at all to me.
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All they had to do was make a call from home and say “Hi, we’d like to come over. You up for a little company?” I would have gotten dressed rather than spending that half hour plugging in all the battery-operated stuff. And turned on the coffee. And thrown the dogs outside which would have saved me some cleaning. Bonnie REALLY hates rain. So does Gibbs. Only the Duke doesn’t care. All weather is fine for him. It’s not that complicated. Especially since my family just walks right in.
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I apologize 3 times.
1: I was sleeping until you woke me up. I missed “the visitation”.
2: I didn’t hear you when you told me about the visitation. I do remember you telling me about Bonnie intruding into your bathroom to do her “business”. Chutzpah!
3: I am sorry I didn’t get up to scoot the dawgs out at dawn. I thought I did but guess that was yesterday.
Mea Culpa.
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