Who’s On The List?

It seems like friendship and relationships are on my mind a lot lately!  We went to a 60^th birthday gathering a couple of weeks ago. While there, the hosts commented that the theme was, 60 people for M’s 60^th. They had invited only 60 people to the event, which was a phenomenal catered cocktail hour with amazing food, signature cocktails, and wonderful conversation. I had two reactions to the theme. One was, we made his list of 60, really? Wow. And the second was, who would my 60 be?

I guess it’s similar to who do you send a wedding invitation to! And it made me wonder about our soon-to-be-planned open house. I look back at planning our wedding event and that was more about work teams and extended family to consider. Interestingly almost all the people who were at our wedding 34 years ago are no longer part of our life at all. Those work teams are long gone, with very few connections still; we have no work teams these days. We’ve lost touch with much of our extended family and and those we still connect with are not local, so wouldn’t be on an invite for an open house, or a milestone birthday even.

Hubby commented he wasn’t sure he could name 60 people to invite! But for me, I thought about all the various circles we (OK, that’s mostly me) engage in. We have the physical neighbors that hubby talks with on dog walks and the broader (and very conservative) neighborhood residents we know from local events and activities. I have my garden clubs and book clubs; yes, plural on both. We have our theater friends and my liberal ladies’ friends, who support me whole-heartedly. Would I invite folks from cardio drumming or beach yoga, as they have all been following the house recovery saga?

I thought about bringing all these circles together under one roof, and had a pause! Both from a how many would this actually be and then, would everyone get along? But, I thought back to that 60 for my 60^th gathering and there were obviously smaller groups that did not interact with other groups of people. It did not matter if everyone talked to everyone. Will it matter if my conservative neighbors know I am very liberal?

Thinking about all those circles of connections, we definitely have over 60 people who might end up at an open house. As we near the end of the house recovery journey, I definitely need to start planning it!

Would identifying your list of 60 be easy or hard?

House Recovery Update: This week we have crept forward towards the “Certificate of Occupancy”. That’s the requirement to moving back in and means passing all the final inspections and meeting all codes. We had granite installed (yay!!), and were able to secure a tile-guy who actually had a delay on another project. Bathroom shower doors, ceiling fans, bedroom plantation shutters, and garage doors went in. There was another round of electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and irrigation. We still have some biggies – finish cabinets, final plumbing, finishing interior stairs, and getting balcony rails in place. But we actually had some furniture delivered (ok-ed by our builder), and it really is getting down to days.

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