When it all falls apart

So for the last few weeks, I’ve been working with a group of women at church to plan a women’s event called What Not to Wear. The idea was to offer tips in Stacy London and Clinton Kelly style, then apply that to our spiritual lives. Sounds good, right? Simple, even?

Umm. . . .well, no. I got to the church around 3:15 p.m. and Rachel and I went to collect vases, tablecloths, votives, all that kind of stuff. By 3:45 p.m. or so, others have arrived. Three women are ironing tablecloths and putting them on tables and I’m decorating the tables with help from Rachel (who’s also trying to do traffic control). I’m also trying to make sure tea is being brewed for Mindy, who’s in charge of the food and can’t be there until right around 5 p.m.

One of my favorite moments came when women actually started arriving. . . at 5 p.m. When the thing clearly was scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. And it’s never fun when people start arriving and you’re still doing the decorating and they don’t get to see the room the way you wanted it to be presented. Not cool.

Finally the tables are done, people are arriving, the food is there and set-up on the buffet line. And we give the go-ahead to eat. Which is great. Until it becomes obvious we need to bring out the other pan of chicken. So I walk into the kitchen to hear this:

Mindy: I can’t find anymore chicken! Me: Huh? Mindy has rushed on, wildly lifting aluminum foil and looking inside large dishes of potatoes, green beans, salad, even banana pudding. No chicken Mindy: There has to be more than one pan of chicken! Amy: We’ve got to have some chicken! Mindy: All the food was on a cart, is it still on a cart? Amy: The door prize cart? Me: I put the door prizes on that cart. There was no chicken on it. Mindy and Amy: Are you sure? Me: Yes, but I’ll look again. We look. No chicken.

In the end, we don’t know where that chicken is. The caterer swears she delivered it. We looked in every warmer, refrigerator, freezer, drawer, table, cart we could find in or near the kitchen. No chicken. I even thought about looking in someone’s purse. NO CHICKEN. 100-plus hungry women. Good thing we had lots of dessert.

Welcome to my life. The comedy of errors. 🙂