Is This You? — Three Days and Fish

There is a saying that goes something like this: “Company is like fish, after three days you need to throw it out.” But! Yes, a fishy spirited but. I don’t take to that thought pattern. Okay, maybe when it was my mother-in-law in the far, far past. Of course it could have been more readily said by my other half of his mother-in-law; aka my mom. Those two really just put up with each other because they both liked me. It is, again, all about me. It might just be the mother-in-law syndrome of life.

I enjoy company. I loved to throw a good party back in the day. My go to response of what time to come over was, “Come early. Stay Late.” If I had had children my house would have been the one that all the kids ran to after school to have treats and play. I can still see the kids at my house doing just that because my mom created that kind of home. So it just stands to reason that now that I am a pseudo-adult, I would have the house that company comes over to, to relax enough to do the one thing that makes me as happy as a clam in mud. They fall asleep!

Oh not because I am boring or that there is nothing going on in my abode at all hours of the day and night. It’s because I hope to make peeps that visit Casa Trina comfortable enough to fall over and sleep like they have not a care in the world. We all want that. Probably more than we let ourselves believe. Not only do we want it, we need it. So that’s what happened when a friend stopped over for a few days recently. Sleep. Glorious sleep overcame my visitor and for more than twenty of the forty-eight hours of the visit there were light ZZZs heard from the depts of pillows. How could you not feel like you have made someone comfortable in your home with that?

Food is the other big thing with company. What to cook, serve, put out, have on hand. This of course starts with “the list.” Grocery shopping for company is like having free rein of all things we usually don’t allow ourselves to enjoy. Like getting the watermelon and cutting it into a boat shape and filling it with all the fresh fruits of the season. That’s where I go first. Growing up fresh fruit signaled a special occasion so I carried that with me. I equate fresh fruit as treats to offer my guests. My sister-in-law is a great cook and when she gets loads of company, she makes some of her Bohemian wonderful recipes. I have eaten until I fall into a food coma at her home. In return she has come and fallen into a sleep coma on my couch at my house. It’s been a great trade off in the past. I do admit I feel I get the better bargain. Yep, sleeping and eating. What could top those two human activities?

Talkin’! Eating and sleeping are the hike up the mountain and talking is the peak of the visit journey. Over meals, football games, drinks, afternoon sunshine, walks around the farm or block, drives around the lake or up in the mountains. Talk can be the best part of visits. Or sometime the part that isn’t so warm and fuzzy. My core family, the family I grew up with, was one that always had what I like to call, “a pot stirrer.” The one person that always seemed to cause a bumpy section to any holiday visit. Not to name names, but she knows who she is. HAHA, I thought every family had at least one member that would stir things up until I got out in the world and met people who actually loved to have all the family get together and enjoy, truly enjoy a few days of family celebration.

I had a woman who worked with us in our hardware store who had a HUGE family. She would go to Thanksgiving or a summer reunion and come back with the greatest stories of happy times. I enjoyed hearing about auntie this and great uncle that doing all things of fun and frolic. All I ever came home with after a meeting of family with this one stick stirring member in attendance, was a headache. So I hoped to never create that in my home. I think, so far, I have accomplished that.

Here’s to the upcoming holidays and summers and birthdays and graduations and all celebrations and visits from and to homes in our lives that are all that and a bag of chips. And wings. And cake—there must always be some type of cake! Enjoy, even if there is fish.

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at [email protected]

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