A post in which it is the 2nd annual egg-dying party

I was up at 7am this morning. Ordinarily, I would have lazed around. Sunday morning just is the perfect time to be lazy. Must be the devil’s work.

But today I had stuff to do. I got up, stripped the bed, put the sheets in to wash, and put fresh sheets on. I went in the kitchen and finished making over some Chinese vegetables I had in the freezer to make them edible for lunches this week. In the process I used up some noodles I had picked up at the Asian market that had been languishing in the cabinet for some time. I did four loads of laundry.

I got a 45 minute nap in so I would hopefully be fresh for tonight. I always end up staying too late at Jeff and James’s house.

I evaluated my potato salad. Usually I make the sauce too thick so the potatoes soak it all up. I tried to compensate by making it kind of soupy, and in the process had gotten it too soupy. So I ran out to the store for more mayonnaise to hopefully thicken it back up a bit. While I was out, I hauled off the recycling, and went by to get some potting soil to mix in with the regular dirt so I can put my tree out.

I bought a little Japanese maple last year, and didn’t get it in the ground last fall as I had intended. I’ve left it a bit too late now, since it’s already putting out leaves, but it needed to be set out. I really need to do some work in the yard, but I decided I might be burned at the stake if I started doing yard work on Easter Sunday. I thought I might be able to get away with putting out the tree, although I could hear my Grandpa Shumate’s voice in my head telling me that it wouldn’t live. Put out on a Sunday was bad enough, but put out on an Easter Sunday was just the death knell. I watered it in well, and went inside to get ready.

I had left myself plenty of time, which was a refreshing change. I took a leisurely shower, did my nails, and basically just made sure I did what I wanted to do before I left the house. I went down to my summer beard today. Thanks to the new clippers it was a cinch. I’ve lost a little weight now, and so I’ve kind of lost that porcine look my face was getting. I decided I looked pretty good.

I headed for Spartanburg, and the drive up seemed to take no time. I felt relaxed when I got there, instead of flustered the way I usually am when I get some place. I was glad I hadn’t gone to the flea market this morning so I had plenty of time to do what needed doing.

Jeff and James put out quite a spread. There was ham, boston butt, potato salad (from yours truly) (as predicted, servings consumed - 2.5), Parker house rolls, broccoli salad, oven-roasted asparagus, deviled eggs, and stuffed salmon. There was homemade banana pudding and a blueberry trifle for dessert. We had easily twice as much food as we would eat, I knew. After admiring the new deck (we dined al fresco this evening), and tucking in, we were all feeling pretty lazy.

Justin and Jeff had done the final prep on the dinner, and after straightening up a bit, Justin started putting the egg dye together. That’s where things went a bit wonky.

Last year, we had some commercial egg dye, and some that was just the food coloring kind. The commercial dyes work much better and yield much brighter colors. After last year, I just figured we would have al commercial dye this year. But Justin was in charge of the dye, and he’s old school about that. It turns out the commercial dye we had last year was some that James had brought. Although the party this year was at Jeff and James’s house, Justin was “in charge”, and I think there was a bit of a breakdown in the division of labor. When Justin brought out the dye for the eggs, it was all homemade food coloring dye, which no one was happy about. That pissed him off, which I can understand. He had put a lot of work in to the party, and had made the dye himself, and we were bitching. James had also thrown out the egg cartons so we had to improvise somewhere to put the dyed eggs to dry. We also didn’t have a clear crayon to make designs with, etc. So there wasn’t a bunch of stuff to dye and decorate eggs with, and it was kind of hard to get motivated anyway since we had eaten so much. Also, two of the prizes this year were Peeps, which no one wanted, since they’re pretty much inedible. Since Justin had bought all the prizes, I’m sure that rankled a bit too.

Amanda is a trooper though. Once she finally got interested in dying the eggs (she always wins), she scrounged around the house and found stuff she could use to make her eggs fancy. They turned out about fifty times better than everyone else’s, as usual. The rest of us would just kind of throw an egg in the dye, and then go have a cigarette and talk for a while. Jeff and Chad (Justin’s new bf) didn’t dye any at all. So it just wasn’t as much fun as last year. My eggs, just because I left them in so long, did have pretty good color to them, so I got second place for “eggs most likely to help children learn their colors”. James got third place for participation even though his eggs had fingerprints all over them from him handling them while they were wet. They didn’t last long anyway, because he set them on a table that wobbled, and when I moved it they fell all over the deck.

As good as it was to see everyone, I think Justin wanted this year’s party to be just like last year’s, and unfortunately you just can’t control that type of thing.

Anyway, we finished up the judging, and then went inside and blew up the Peeps in the microwave, which is about all they’re really good for.

Justin and Chad left pretty quickly after that, Justin citing school work he needed to do, but I think he was pretty disappointed.

I stayed on to visit. We hung out and just enjoyed each other’s company. I told stories to make James laugh. I love to get him tickled. I had intended to leave about 10pm, but when I checked the time it was 11:45. Ugh. I have to be up for work in 6.5 hours! I got home and got into bed as quickly as possible, but tomorrow is still going to be a rough day.