Stacked

I have some truly amazing friends with whom I have been spending more and more time lately. And on Friday nights, instead of going out, we have been dining in at my house (with the proposal to rotate homes) and just hanging out. It has been a wonderful break from going out to restaurants where we feel somewhat limited in the amount of time we can spend together visiting or being as loud as we want to be.

My friends have also been wonderful in jumping in to take part in washing up and helping clean the kitchen at the end of the night which is far beyond anything I would expect of friends or guests in my home. They wash dishes and help put away the leftovers which saves me so much time of doing it by myself. As much as I love having the company, but I probably would not do it as often if I had to do all the cooking and cleaning by myself - it just makes for a very long evening.

But I can be a little particular about things. My daily use plates are yellow and red (two same style sets in different colors). Just for visual purposes, and because I’m a bit compulsive about some things, I stack them yellow red yellow red yellow red, etc. I do the same thing with the bowls and the small plates.

One day this week I opened the cabinet and had to consciously restrain myself (long enough to grab the camera).

Two red plates were stacked on top of one another. My arm reflexively went out to shuffle the order of the plates so they would be alternating. I realized I was not the person who had stacked the plates and that I would just have to look at that plate, stacked in a way other than the way I would do it, and realize it was because my friends are amazing and wonderful and put away the thoughts that they do not know how to stack plates.

It took conscious work for me to do, but all this week, whenever I have opened the cabinet and seen the two red plates stacked together, I smile and remember the great time I had hosting my friends at the house and look forward to a time when I can do it again.

But I really want to restack the plates.