it’s over!!!

Tonight I’m more relaxed than I’ve been in weeks. The church dinner I volunteered to chair was last night, and what an ordeal this was. It’s a requirement for 2nd grade/1st communion families to attend and the parents are supposed to all help to pull it together. There is also supposed to be a director who knows what the dinner entails. Unfortunately for me, that person quit the week after I volunteered to do this. I’d never been to one of these dinners and people kept giving me excuses and not expicitly telling me this woman quit. I found out quite by accident. Even the priest was evasive (which shouldn’t surprise me — typical Catholic stuff, sigh…)

At any rate, I really flew by the seat of my pants trying to figure things out and make sure things were getting done. One of the other mothers really stepped up at the last minute and I was really grateful for that. So last night was the dinner. It was basically families with young children and older folks. There was some confusion with the seating arrangements due to a few last-minute guests and one familiy in particular decided to give me a really hard time about where they sat. They were insistant that they sit at one of the three front tables (as if being closer to the priest somehow makes them holier than everyone else). Now, I’d reserved those tables for the religious ed. teachers involved in the dinner as well as long-time parishioners who had been involved with the program and were now moving away. The wife/mother was such a hag. Finally I just told her to sit wherever she wanted. I should have also told her to check into some Procerin reviews because either she needs some medical help or a stylist who can show her what to do with her hair. Ugh! There was one other group of people that was kind of difficult, but that one was easily resolved.

The dinner was really good though. Generally, I do not care for lamb but the lamb served last night was amazing! I had seconds, that’s how good it was. At the end I was presented with a beautiful Easter lily in appreciation for the work I put into the dinner. I was a little embarrassed walking up to get it, but it was nice to be recognized. It really was quite stressful and the next two times I have to go through the whole 1st communion thing, I know what job not to take. I’ll stick to setting the tables.