Martine Pagé

First 2 of our 13 guests arrive Tuesday morning. The house fill be full of people for 3 days (plus a guest dog).

Turkey is bought. Hors-d’oeuvres and side dishes wait their turn in the fridge. To do lists start getting completed.

On Sunday morning, old and annoying in-wall oven sends sparks through the kitchen and dies a spectacular death.

Realize that just about everything you planned for the Christmas Eve meal (traditional qu�b�cois with a twist) has to be baked and won’t fit in the toaster oven.

Wonder what the chances are of finding a stove repairman 2 days before Christmas.

Decide to not spend a dollar on that old oven that drives you crazy. Find comfort in the thought that you will no longer have to yell « DOOR! » as a warning every time you open the amazingly loud oven door.

Go crazy trying to find a store that has in-wall ovens in stock and can deliver for the 23rd.

Salesman makes a promise.

After the new oven is paid for and the installation technician booked, salesman now says the oven might be delivered on the 24th. Maybe late in the day.

Images of cold turkey, raw beets and hungry guests dance in front of your eyes.

Refuse to think of alternate menus and keep thinking of the thawing turkey in the fridge.

Consider becoming a vegetarian again.

Call comes in from the store manager: delivery should happen on the 23rd unless there’s some kind of problem.

Breathe deeply and keep your fingers crossed. Hope nothing will get in the way of the installation.

Listen to your beau who says: « Do you realize that from now on, we will be remembered in that appliance store as the Turkey Emergency Couple? »

There are two categories of friendship: those in which people are enlivened by each other and those in which people must be enlivened to be with each other: In the first category one clears the decks to be together. In the second one looks for an empty space in the schedule.

From Approaching eye level, by Vivian Gornick.

Traduction approximative:
Il y a deux cat�gories d’amiti�: celle qui nous revitalise et celle pour laquelle on doit d�j� se sentir en forme pour pouvoir en profiter. Pour la premi�re cat�gorie, on annule d’autres rendez-vous pour arriver � se rencontrer. Pour la deuxi�me, on cherche simplement un trou dans son agenda parmi les autres activit�s.

Au gars qui vient juste de sortir de son auto malgr� les grands vents pour pousser ma Corolla qui patinait sur une plaque de glace, un gros, gros merci! (Je n’ai pas pu le remercier sur place puisqu’il m’a fallu profiter de l’�lan offert pour rouler et lib�rer l’intersection que je bloquais.)

Cher inconnu, puisse un �tranger (ou une belle �trang�re) vous rendre la pareille cet hiver! Je compte d’ailleurs d�panner aussi un inconnu d�s que j’en aurai l’occasion. Je prends soin de mon karma, moi!