Guests
House guests, party guests,
Ignorant hosts
2000
Archive
A few years ago, my roommate and I hosted a small
party at our apartment, including some friends and some friends-of-friends. It was late,
and the friends-of-friends were starting to get drunk and rambunctious, when the phone
rang. I picked it up in the bedroom. It was a very close friend of ours, telling me that
her father had just suddenly died. She was devastated, of course, and I spent a good
half-hour on the phone with her, crying, trying to console her and helping to figure out
relevant arrangements. I was absolutely heartbroken, too, as her dad and I had been great
buddies.
My roommate came in to find out what was taking so long on the
phone. When I told her what had happened, she was very shaken as well. After gathering
herself (and consoling me!) she went out and quietly circulated word that we had received
some bad news. Most of the guests offered sympathy and slipped out. The
friends-of-friends, though, just said "oh, that sucks." and kept right on
partying! They were saying to the other guests "Where are you going? The party's just
starting! Woo hoo! Have another beer!" When we told them flat out that we were very
upset and were in no mood for partying, they told us that we should "lighten
up." We told them to get out, and apparently they never understood why they were not
invited back.
Guests0217-01
This is about the incredibly crass behavior of the father of a
childhood friend (let's call him Dr. G). His daughter (J) and I were friends from the age
of 10, expat kids growing up together in an international community in a third world
country. In our junior year of high school, he was transferred back to stateside at a good
promotion. As is the custom in small circles, many of the families in our community held
farewell dinners for my friend's family before they returned to the US. My parents also
invited the G family over for a farewell dinner, primarily because of my friendship with
their daughter. At the dinner Dr. G insulted my parents by boasting that all the dinner
invitations they had received were due to people racing to kiss his a$$ because he was
going on to an influential position!
Fast forward five years. I am invited to J's wedding even though we
have not seen each other since our junior year of high school and have barely kept in
touch. Even though I cannot go, I send a very nice and expensive gift (which I can barely
afford) and sign for my entire family on the wedding card. Six months later, AFTER the
wedding, J's dad returns to the third world on a business trip. He hand delivers wedding
invitations to all the people he had earlier disparaged as brown-nosers and announces that
he has brought an empty suitcase to carry back all the wedding gifts that he knows they
want to give his daughter! My parents bought another very expensive gift for J (because
she was my friend) and signed my name on the card. Unsurprisingly, we never received an
acknowledgement of either gift. Guests0228-01
I was at a friends house, and his friend John came over. John
brought his girlfriend. They sat down, in front of them was a low glass table. This girl
(very ugly, very fat, and very loud) took off her shoes, and plopped her manly feet on the
table. I was a little bit shocked.
Guests0328-01
A joint surprise party was being held for the 40th birthdays of 2
people (a
man and a woman; they and their spouses are friends) in my neighborhood. I
got an invitation--it was to be a paintball party followed by a barbecue. (I
know, you're thinking, "Paintball? They're 40!" And believe it or not I live
in a very nice neighborhood. But I figured, maybe that's what they consider
fun.) I've played paintball and I'm...well, let's just say I'm not a
teenager anymore.
As I read the invite, it stated as follows--"please RSVP as soon as
possible--there are a limited number of spots for the paintball so only the
first 80 people who reply can come".
Come to find out, they invited 100 people--but only 80 can go to the
party!
So if you don't RSVP soon, you're out of luck. I spoke to one of the spouses
and he told me, "Well, we figured that would make people RSVP quickly and we
wouldn't be stuck with empty spots. We have a waiting list though, in case
someone cancels."
Yeah, I'm sure people are going to sit by the phone and be a second choice!
Can you believe the sheer tackiness of this? Needless to say, my husband and
I declined! (And I'm not even 40 yet!) Guests0411-01
My cousin, who is notoriously cheap, had invited my parents out to
dinner as a thank you for all of the nice things they had done for her in the past years.
My parents had managed a rental house she had owned. Their jobs were finding renters,
collecting rent, and fixing anything that went wrong at the house. They did this free of
charge for about 10 years. They were surprised at the invitation, but happy that she would
spring for a meal.
The dinner day comes and my cousin picks a really nice, up-scale
restaurant. They have a good meal and the check comes to the table. She makes no motion to
pick it up or anything. Several minutes go by, and still nothing. She excuses herself to
the bathroom, she comes back and the check is still sitting there. Finally after about 15
minutes my dad picks up the check and sticks HIS credit card in it. Now I don't know about
you, but when I say I'm going to invite someone to dinner as a thank you that means that
I'm going to pick up the check! Apparently not to my cousin, all etiquette is lost on her!
Guests0411-01
I was invited to go cross country skiing with a friend and his
parents with some other mates when I was a teenager, and after talking with my parents
about it I decided that I really didn't want to go cross country skiing in particular and
I probably couldn't afford it. I left myself a little time to get back to my friend in
case I changed my mind. I was meant to be going with his family and another that I played
basketball with and they both had 7 seat people movers/vans.
Anyway, I had received a call from this friend to borrow my black
leather shoes as he was part of his schools marching band, I said sure and let him borrow
them. He kept them for a week (instead of the day as he had assured me), and I found them
at my back door, as no-one had been home when he returned them. To my suprise, there was a
note in the heel of one of the shoes saying that his 8 year old brother (7 years younger
than us) had decided to invite another friend, and that it was only fair that his brother
get to invite another of his friends.
I couldn't believe it, I'd been disinvited and I was livid, I
couldn't believe that 1. he would disinvite me 2. do it after I had let him borrow my
shoes and 3. Do it with a note left in my shoes he had returned late and scuffed up. To
add insult to injury, I talked to another friend who said that he had had a wonderful time
skiing, I asked who with, and you guessed it, my friend and his family. I know he wasn't
invited in the first place. So it turns out that I was replaced not by a 7 year old
friend, but another of my aged friends that was part of our group many a grade earlier.
This last friend had no idea that I had been invited so I asked if there was many people
that went. He said there were a few (and named them), but they had room for at least
another 3 people over the 2 vans. After that, I had words to this "friend" in
front of the rest of the guys, quit the basketball team and watched their team and his
friendships disband as one by one realized how much of a #^@! wit this guy was. Even
though I didn't want to go, it is the principle of the thing. Your spitefully,
Disgruntled. Guests0417-01
Yeah, there are a few faux pas on
the part of the friend but why on earth is the storyteller getting his knickers all in a
twist about an invitation to an activity he decided he didn't want to do and couldn't
afford? EtiquetteHell Anti Burn Prevention: Don't wait to RSVP hoping to get a
better offer or decide at the last minute thus leaving the host dangling.
I have this "really good friend", or atleast she says she
is. Her and I went to another city one weekend to visit another friend of mine and I met a
guy. The long-distance relationship progressed and he was shortly after on vacation to my
city for three nights.
This "friend" of mine OFFERED to have myself and the guy
visiting me use her apartment for the entire time, so we would have some privacy. I was
floored by her generosity, as she was normally more like scrooge. I graciously accepted
and thanked her as much as possible seeing as she is so unpredictable. I tried to keep
things mellow the week before his arrival so she wouldn't back out on me at the last
minute.
So, he arrives as planned and the weekend went UNBELIEVEABLY well!!
I should add my "friend" was not inconvenienced in the least, she spends every
night at her boyfriends place anyway and we had stayed out of her apartment as much as we
could during early hours. May I also mention, my "friend" said she wouldn't mind
in the slightest if there were any "encounters" in her bed and even lit candles
and put the radio on for us one day before she left and we came home. I was grateful to
her and I offered to take her out one night ON ME!
So, a week later, she and her boyfriend have a fight, her boyfriend
calls me to confide and ends up telling me that the entire time we stayed at her house all
she did was complain about how much we were inconveniencing her and how ungrateful I was
the whole time. She complained that when she came home one day, she found our box of
condoms by the bed and went on and on about how she was disgusted and had to clean her
sheets. I THEN find out that not only did she complain to her boyfriend, but she also
complained to a lot of her friends, one of which, by the way, "hates" me for all
of the crap I put her "friend" through that week. And this was NOT the first
time she's pulIed this sort of stunt, yet this one was the worst! I was furious!! Needless
to say, we are no longer friends. Guests0418-01
Only 2 months after my husband and I were married, my husband's
cousin invaded our living room for what was supposed to be a short stay. At the time, I
was only 19 and my husband was 22. His cousin, was in his mid/late forties (Older then my
parents). He came to stay with us after an online, turned live-in, love affair ended and
the woman turned out to be "crazy."
All he brought with him were some jeans and tee shirts and his
computer. He immediately set his computer up in my dining room and there he stayed,
"chatting" for hours on end. He got up about every hour to stand outside our
arcadia door and smoke cigarette and drink beer. He drank all our beer, ate our food, and
never once did anything to help out around the house. I'd wake up at 3:00am to get a
drink, and there he'd be, typing away.
What bothered me most was that I was 7 months pregnant, working full
time, to support a man who was older than my own parents. He never looked for a job or a
place of his own. He was there when we brought home our son, even though my husband and I
had told him he needed to be out of our house by the time the baby came. And I was forced
to hide in my bedroom to breast feed and heal from giving birth. He always had money for
smokes and even beer, but none to help buy food or pay bills. By the time he left, 3
months had gone by. It put a huge strain on our marriage and ruined the little time we had
together before being parents. Occasionally he still asks my husband and his brothers for
money to help get him out of jams, even though he's supposedly living in another country.
Talk about outstaying your welcome.
Guests0510-01
A little background. My father's parents live across the street from
my parents. My father's mom (call her *C*) has always been a little oddly self-obsessed,
but I don't think it can be put down to anything pathological. Every year, my mom is
expected to put on a huge shindig for the 'big' holidays i.e. Christmas, Easter,
Thanksgiving. She also used to do a party for my Dad's birthday but stopped when C started
to claim that the same day was her birthday and take over the celebrations. C throws
parties once every two years or so when her other daughter is in town. These inevitably
involve a bucket of wings and pre-fab cake from the worst and cheapest fast food place in
town. When C is invited to our parties, she always brings green jello salad with pineapple
chunks. Always. In the same dish even. And spends at least half the meal talking about how
much she loves to cook (she spends the other half of the meal talking about how she only
married my grandfather, a lovely man, because she felt sorry for him, but that's another
faux pas.)
Ok, so she's old and all. So it's more funny than evil. Except the
year that my second brother was born.
My second brother was born two _days_ before Easter. It was a home
birth and it was very difficult because it was breech (that is, my brother was backwards.)
It was also my mom's fifth child, so she had four other young'uns hanging around in
various stages of shock, concern, sibling rivalry. The next day C came by to see the new
arrival and in the course of the conversation it became apparent that she still expected
to be invited over to Easter dinner... I don't know whether my mom was just flustered or
what, but somehow she found herself agreeing, preparing the ham, yams, veggies, three
kinds of dessert, two kinds of rolls, all the usual stuff, and setting it on the sideboard
just as C showed up Easter Sunday - bearing the usual green jello salad.
Guests0510-01
My husband worked with a man who had a wife and two horrible kids. I
didn't really care for these people, but we occasionally went out them to be nice. We were
out shopping one day about a week before my daughter's birthday party, I hadn't invited
these people as it was only going to be for family, and they were at her party the year
before and were horribly behaved. The wife bought my daughter a birthday gift so I felt
obligated to invite them to the party. They showed up 2 hours early with another kid that
I didn't even know. As my daughter was opening her gifts, these two little heathens were
taking them away from her and opening all of the toys. They had done the same thing once
before and lost or broke her toys before she got to play with them. When I got fed up and
took the gifts inside so that my daughter could enjoy them later, their mother got very
angry and spent the rest of the party glaring at me like I was some kind of evil person
for not letting her kids play with my daughters new toys. I haven't invited them to a
party since. Guests0516-01
I have a guest from Hell story to tell you. I have a good friend (or
at least I thought she was a good friend) that live a few hours away from me. She comes to
visit me in New York City often, and also make a lot of business trips down here. Well, I
had planned to have her come stay with me for one weekend because she was going to be in
town for a trade show. The trade show was Tuesday - Friday, so she was planning to head to
my apartment on Friday for some fun. The Monday before the trade show, she emailed me tell
me that she would be at my apartment around 10 p.m. on Tuesday. Eek! I guess she decided
that she was staying with me the whole week. I have a one-bedroom apartment that I share
with my boyfriend. Basically, my friend would be invading my living room for the week.
But, she was a friend, so I decided to deal with it. She did mention, however, that her
company would pay for dinner one of the nights -- she would expense it -- since we were
saving them money by letting her stay with us rather than in a hotel. I thought it was a
fair deal. As you may know, apartments in NYC are VERY small.
That Tuesday -- the night she was supposed to arrive around 10 p.m.
-- she was nowhere in sight. I waited until 11:30 p.m. and she finally called me to say
she was meeting up with some co-workers for drinks and that she would just stay with them
after. No problem, but it would've been nice if she'd called earlier. The same thing
happened the next night, but she ended up showing up to stay. I figured we would go out to
dinner on Thursday -- on her company -- since that's what she had mentioned (she mentioned
it again when she got to my apartment at 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday). When I got home from
work at 6:30 p.m., she had already gone to dinner across the street because she was
hungry. Has she ever heard of a snack?
Not only did she NOT take us out to dinner, but she bragged the
WHOLE WEEK about how she's making 6 figures. My boyfriend and I heard over-and-over how
she's maxed-out her contribution to her 401K and how she can afford to buy clothes every
week. She literally bought about $300 worth of clothes while she was in town. Now, I don't
mind that she's making 6 figures -- good for her, but if that's the case, then she
could've taken me out to dinner herself -- on her company or not -- as a thank you for the
week-long hospitality. I got really sick of hearing about her money. My boyfriend is not
one to notice these kinds of things, and he even said to me that she was annoying him
about how much she makes -- before I said a word to him! Also, he doesn't make that much
since he's a freelancer here in NYC. Well, he's just a really sweet guy. He bought her
drinks all weekend, sort of expecting that she would get the next round and I would get
the one after that. She NEVER offered to pay for any of his drinks. I took my appropriate
turn at paying for a round, but she claimed she was "pretty tipsy already" when
it came time for her round.
We made a late night stop at the grocery store for some ice cream
after a night out and she let us pay for that too. Then, on Saturday, one of my
boyfriend's friends had a really cute cocktail party. She's a painter, so she was having
this party to take photos of some cute scenes to paint. She asked us all to dress up and
served us kitschy cocktails all night -- it was really a lot of fun. This friend was nice
enough to let my out-of-town friend join us rather than having us miss the party (she also
has a tiny one-bedroom NYC apartment -- extra guests can be a tight squeeze). As is
usually customary for a nice party, my boyfriend and I stopped to buy her a nice bottle of
wine. My boyfriend chipped in for the wine -- my friend didn't offer a penny.
This friend of mine is also very comfortable with her body, which is
great, but I don't need her parading around half naked in my small apartment in front of
my boyfriend. My boyfriend is a photographer, so he is used to seeing naked women. He
wasn't gawking at her, but he was very uncomfortable about it. It was rude. She was
wearing these completely see-through boxers with no underwear to bed at night. Also, the
night of the party, she was trying on some things because she hadn't planned on it and
didn't bring the right clothes. So, I let her borrow some stuff. She had some leather
pants on, and I offered her a beige tank top to go with it. She tried it on without a bra
-- and you could see EVERYTHING. She looked down and realized this, but proceeded to go
into the living room to get to the bathroom just to double check. So, my boyfriend's out
in the living room with her walking around in a super thin tank with no bra. Ugh!
She is a really good friend -- or at least I thought she was. I
guess she shouldn't stay with me for a whole week in the future! Guests0308-01
My husband and I were living in a two-bedroom unit in high-rise
building in our hometown when my husband accepted a contract job that would take us out of
state for six to twelve months. This would mean maintaining households in both places
during this time period, but my husband's employer would be giving him tax-free expense
money to pay for the second place so this was not a financial burden.
However, we did want to have someone taking care of our place at
home while we were gone, and we had a friend who lived several states away who had told us
numerous times that he was interested in moving to our city. So we called up our friend
and asked him if he would like to house-sit our place for the 6-12 months. That way, we'd
have a house-sitter, and he'd have a place to stay while looking for a job and getting
settled. (At this time, we believed this person to be a very mature, reliable, and
trustworthy individual.) He agreed to come out and house-sit for us, and we told him we
expected to be gone for six to twelve months and he could stay at our place until my
husband's out-of-state job was over.
We sent him the keys, he came over and moved in, and all seemed to
be going well until just before my husband's out-of-state job was over. While we were out
of the state, my parents sent me and my husband a large monetary gift which we decided to
use as a down payment for a house. So during one of our visits back to our hometown, my
husband and I selected a house and set a closing date for almost two months later. We
called our friend who was house-sitting for us and gave him notice of the move out date,
and also asked him if he would be willing to pack up our apartment as a favor to us. We
let him know that if he felt the job was too much for him, we would gladly get some of our
other friends to help out. He assured us that yes, he would be happy to pack things up for
us, that he felt it was the least he could do for us considering we would have given him
six months of free rent by the move-out date, and that no, he didn't need anyone else to
come over and help. He was confident that he could get the job done himself. We also gave
this friend most of our furniture from our old apartment, as we had bought a new set of
furniture for our house.
My husband called this friend numerous times during the following
seven or eight weeks, and was told that the packing was going "fine", although
he did make a few comments to the effect that we had an awful lot of stuff. BTW, I don't
feel that we had given him too much stuff to pack as at least half our personal belongings
we had taken with us out of state. The day came for the closing on our house, and my
husband and I took a few days off work and flew back into town for a long weekend of
moving. We got back to our apartment in mid-afternoon after a long morning of business
details regarding our house closing. We expected to find most of our stuff neatly boxed
up, ready to be moved. Instead we found a disaster area. Not only was almost nothing
packed (only about 2 or 3 boxes), the place was a mess. Including an entire closet stuffed
full of newspapers waiting to be taken to the recyclers. And to top it all of, he had
invited an out-of-town guest to visit him during this time, and was spending all his time
running around entertaining this friend rather than helping to pack. (GGRRRRR!!!!! We HAD
given him almost 2 months notice. Why couldn't he have had the friend visit him a
different time?! Or at least work on packing during the previous 7 weeks!)
So, anyway, as we were getting back to our apartment at
mid-afternoon, our friend and his guest were just going out "for a little
while", but our friend promised us that "soon" to finish packing. Not
wanting to make a scene in front of his guest, we didn't object at this point. Meanwhile,
my husband and I begin frantically packing and cleaning up. Hours passed (at least 7 or 8
hours), it is now late in the evening, my husband and I have been working ourselves like
crazy, it has become abundantly clear that we don't have a snowballs chance in #%*&!@
of getting everything done before our plane leaves on Sunday afternoon, and finally our
friend and his guest stroll back in ready to "finish packing."
Of course by this time I am furious, but even so my husband and I
confront him as tactfully as we can, telling him that we were disappointed that he had not
kept his promise to us, and that we had really believed him to be more responsible. (The
only thing that kept me from flying into a raving tantrum at this point was my respect for
our friend's guest, who, after all, was merely an innocent bystander.) And our friend
actually had the gall to be surprised that I was upset, as he protested, "But I WAS
going to finish packing for you." I asked him just when he thought he was going to
get it all done, considering my husband and I had been working many hours and were still
nowhere near being done. He had seriously thought he could tackle the whole job in an
evening!!!!
In the end, my husband and I had to take two extra days off work
(with no notice), change our plane ticket, and pay two extra days on our rental car, all
at great personal expense, to finish packing, cleaning, and moving. We realized later that
just about the only things our friend had taken the time to do were the things that
benefited himself. That is, he moved out all of his own personal belongings, the furniture
that we were giving him. He even wasted half a day driving the whole closet full of
newspapers all the way across town to a recylcer who would give him money for them. And
this was despite the fact that we had asked him to simply take all the newspapers to the
recycling bins in the basement of the apartment building, as there wasn't time to waste
running around. Guests0626-01
Years ago, we were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at my
brother-in-law's house. He was on wife #2, and her family would be there also at their
rather small house. We arrived at the appointed time to find that there was no room for
us. The kitchen table had been converted into the serving line, piled high with food, so
no one was allowed to sit there. My brother-in-law and his wife's side of the family were
camped out in the living room with TV trays and a big-screen TV so they wouldn't miss the
football game, and there were no more chairs. I was told that I could take my flimsy paper
plate, and go sit on my nephew's bed to eat this meal. They were also out of forks by this
time, so I was eating my Thanksgiving turkey with a spoon! I couldn't believe how
unprepared they were! If they had only asked, I would have eagerly brought more chairs and
forks. I found out later that this was caused by several last minute guests on the wife's
side of the family. Apparently, his wife's family kept adding on friends and relatives who
weren't originally invited. One guy just got on parole, and that's why he was able to join
us! Guests0215-01
House guests. A phrase that brings a feeling of nausea even after 12
years have passed since "Sally,Cliff" and their offspring came to visit. Sally
and Cliff were friends of mine and my now ex-husband. We were living on the west coast
having moved from the north 2 years prior. Sally and Cliff kept in touch with us by phone
infrequently during that time. Although they weren't the closest of friends,we were fond
of Cliff and he had married Sally and they had produced two children together.
Cliff called and told us that he and Sally wanted to try living on
the west coast. He asked if it would be alright if they stopped to visit us when they came
down and could they stay a few days? We were more than happy to have them as prospective
guests. It was the perfect motivation to section off part of a large room to make a small
guest room. We had about ten days to put up a wall and closet,furnish the room with a bed
and cot for the little ones. All was done in ample time and I was very pleased with the
results.
The family arrived tired and bedraggled from their long car trip. We
fussed over the kids, fed them and tried to make them as comfortable as possible. After
the kids were settled in,Cliff and Sally let us know of their finances. They had arrived
at our home with less than one hundred dollars in their pockets, driving a car that the
finance company was looking to repossess due to failure to make payments. They were
fleeing from bill collectors and a bank looking to foreclose on a house they had bought
the previous year. This would be a sad and moving story if it were not for the fact of
Cliff and Sally being just plain stupid with their money. Unfortunately, I would not find
this out immediately but over a very long month.
My first clue came when the next day, sally went shopping with their
hundred dollars at a bargain store and bought herself some clothes and the kids some
clothes and plastic novelty mugs. She now had fourteen dollars left. She had to have her
cigarettes and diet soda every day. She would buy a Big Gulp and put some in the 11 months
old bottle for his breakfast. She had no regard for my house. I had new furniture for the
first time in my adult life and her kids would be fed and not have their hands wiped and
have sticky fingers all over it. I was starting to go nuts. This woman wouldn't even
change her kids diaper. She would call her husband to do it. She said it
was"icky".
Neither one looked for work but immediately started contacting
welfare organizations. Some suggestions they made while they were our "guests"
were, their children sleep in my daughter's room because the baby cries a lot at night,
couldn't we buy fast food more often for dinner and please stop buying 2% milk since their
daughter likes whole milk. They ended up costing us about six hundred dollars that month
that we couldn't afford ,in food,utilities and loans. They were slobs,leeches and if it
were not for worrying about their children,they would have been gone in two days. A lesson
learned. Guests0725-01
Hi, My story is about Parents from Hell. Not my parents. Just people
who are parents of small children. A surprising number of people might relate to this
story: My husband and I invited a couple of good friends over for dinner. This invitation
included their two children, then 3 & 4 years of age. We prepared a special dinner for
the children. We fed them first and their parents installed them in plain sight on the
sofa to watch a children's movie while the adults ate dinner. So far so good.
Then, the children's parents turned into - the parents from hell:
The kids were quietly absorbed in the movie - or were trying to be - but mother was
talking to them from the kitchen about what was going on in the movie. Mother bolted down
her supper and joined the kids in front of the TV. That left three adults eating dinner -
but not for long. Mother began talking to Father about the movie. Father hurried up and
joined them. My husband and I sat there astounded. We didn't have to say a word to each
other. We understood each other perfectly. THESE friends would not be invited back for a
very, very long time. Truly, this incident marked the end of our socializing.
Guests0831-01
Hi, Here is a submission for your "etiquette hell" - it's
truly unbelievable people can be so tacky. My Sister in Law, her family and her parents
were invited to her neighbor's Bar-B-Que on Father's Day. The neighbors served up Filet
Mignon and lobster. But the clincher was they charged each guest $20 a head, and everyone
had to bring their own beer on top of it all. Oh, and only the Father's got to eat the
lobster. The women had to go without because it was, afterall, Father's Day. Love your
site! Guests0905-01
I know that you can't go through life without meeting these people,
but this dinner guest was by far, the worst one I had ever had. ``Steve`` was a busboy who
I used to work with during my waitressing days. After I left the job, ``Steve`` remained
behind, while I moved on in my career. Since then, ``Steve`` kept in contact with me, and
one day, he called to tell me his Great Aunt had died. He also complained profusely about
his job, and wanted to get out of it. Feeling sorry for him, I invited him over to my
house for dinner.
When he arrived, he was wearing a crumpled white button down shirt
with his tie askew, khaki pants, and old black running shoes. When he entered my house, he
walked right past me, and began to wander around. He began pestering me with questions
about how big was my house, how many bedrooms there were, did I live with anyone, where
was my family located. He looked at my furniture and my stereo like a starving man looking
at a steak.
When we sat down to dinner, I served him Pasta in large pasta bowls.
He complained, ``Why are you serving spaghetti in bowls.. they're supposed to be on
plates``. My other guest, Sidney, and I did not reply. Throughout the dinner, ``Steve``
stretched and lounged all over the table, laying his head down on the table for several
minutes at a time, stretching himself out onto the two empty seats beside him and laying
down, and for some reason, kept on making strange, scowling expressions. Throughout the
dinner, he nodded off twice, and mumbled incoherently. Whenever I got up to take a
phonecall, or to go to the bathroom, ``Steve`` would get up from the table, and walk
around my house, wandering from room to room. He even went so far as to go into the family
room, which is kept closed. He took the doorknob of the door and began to wrestle it.
`What's in here, I wanna see this Place!!.`` he said. Luckily, when I returned to the
table, he had already sat down.
During the dinner, ``Steve`` kept on looking around, and made
remarks like, ``I could get used to this place`` and then smiled at me. The look he gave
me made my skin crawl. As I cleared the plates and served coffee, ``Steve`` continued to
make racial slurs at my friend Sidney. ``Steve`` placed two of his index fingers on his
temples, and made his eyes go slitty like. ``WANT SOME EGGROLLS" he yelled and then
burst out laughing. Needless to say, Sidney nor I did not find this funny, as Sidney is
Chinese.
Afterwards, all three of us went into the Den to watch TV. As we sat
on the sofa, I asked Steve if he would pass me a blanket.``Steve`` picked up the blanket
next to him and THREW it at me. When I got up to go to the bathroom, ``Steve`` then
sprawled himself out all over the sofa, with laid his dirty feet on the cushions. Sidney
saw this display, and said, ``You'll have to move when she comes back`` ``Steve`` looked
at him, smirked and said, ``Yeah, well, when she comes, I``ll just kick her off``. When I
returned, Sidney looked very uncomfortable, and signaled to me with his eyes to get this
idiot out of my house. I stated that I had to go and return some movies, and then Sidney
offered to drive me. ``Steve`` said that he would come too, so we ended up driving the
jerk home.
After we dropped this jerk off, (at a small little apartment in a
seedy part of town) Sidney looked at me and said that when I was gone from the kitchen,
``Steve`` would get up from the table, and wander around. He even went through my CD
collection, and stated to Sidney that this wasn't a house, this was a mansion, and
interrogated Sidney, asking him if he lived here, and if I had any family in the area.
Sidney told me that ``Steve`` acted like a drug addict he once saw, all fidgety, and
nodding off, and he saw that ``Steve`` had angry red little dots all over his lower
forearms. Sidney said that he saw it because at one point ``Steve`` rolled up one of his
sleeves to scratch them. ` Sidney warned me that I better get a security system in place.
Needless to say, I never spoke to ``Steve`` ever again, and my new security system is top
of the line.
Guests0920-01
Several years ago, I was seeing a man whose family invited me to
Thanksgiving dinner at their home in the country. We had been dating for about three
months, so this was the famous "dinner with the folks" milestone; I was also
living in a city hundreds of miles away from home, so the opportunity to actually spend a
real Thanksgiving with a family instead of in my room with a TV dinner was greatly
appreciated.
I bought a bottle of wine -- a relatively inexpensive but good wine.
We arrived twenty minutes earlier than my boyfriend had told me we needed to arrive. He
pulled the wine from my hand and announced to his mother "I brought wine!" (Oh,
really? You bought the wine? Troubling clue number one). I asked his mother if there was
anything I could do to help out. No, she said, everything was already cooking or done, the
table was set. There was nothing for me to do. She was a little cool, but seemed all
right. I'd met his younger brother before, he was amiable if a little flaky; his younger
sister and her boyfriend seemed nice if not terribly interested in me, and his older
brother and his wife were actually very nice. His father didn't bother to acknowledge our
arrival from his perch on the Barcalounger in front of the TV. Mom shooed me out of the
kitchen when I tried to help carry the food in to the table: "We can manage."
Dinner went well, though most of the family -- including my
boyfriend -- talked around me. Only the older brother and his wife actually conversed with
me. His father said nothing that I recall to anyone during the dinner, just shoveled food
in. After dinner, his mother stood up and loudly and firmly announced that whoever did not
help her cook would have to do the dishes (no dishwasher). Fine, I thought, my chance to
help. A couple of us would be doing dishes. Younger brother announced that as he'd helped
by tasting the food, he didn't have to do them. Boyfriend (bad sign #2) announced that
he'd been "working around the house all day" (a lie, and an awfully vague one at
that)...so he was exempt. Everyone then looked at me. "Since you didn't help with
dinner, you're the one who gets to wash the dishes!" Mom said. His older brother,
bless him, prevented me from feeling really singled out by pointing out that he had not
helped cook, so would be doing the dishes too. Various people started protesting that he
worked all week, he shouldn't have to wash dishes, until his wife said, "Why
shouldn't he do dishes?" Sis's boyfriend, and of course silent Dad, said nothing
during this whole exchange. That's when I, not always quick on the uptake, got it. The
dishes were really women's work in this house; as the lone woman who had not helped with
the cooking (for whatever reason -- not being there didn't excuse me), I was solely
responsible for them -- despite the feeble lip service Bill and his younger brother paid
to why they shouldn't have to do them.
While his brother and I were washing dishes, either Mom or Sis would
come in every five minutes, and insist that his brother come watch football: "She can
finish those up by herself." It was the most uncomfortable holiday dinner I've ever
had. I was more than willing to help, but demanding that a guest wash, dry, and put away
all the dishes and pans generated by Thanksgiving dinner for nine seemed excessive. I felt
totally excluded, and embarrassed (and in retrospect, I don't think I'd committed any faux
pas). It was indeed a harbinger: I quickly discovered later that my boyfriend had specific
ideas about what women were supposed to do around the house. Bad sign #3: while doing all
those dishes, his brother asked me, "Um, why are you with my brother? You seem too
smart for him...". Joking, but not really. The relationship didn't last too much
longer. I did write an insincere thank you note to his Mom, and even refrained from
suggesting she get a damn dishwasher. Guests0925-01
My freshman year in college, there was an international student in
my dorm hall named "Jack." One day he saw someone riding their bike, and said
"thats a nice bike." The next day he came riding up on a new bike of the
same model. A few days later he saw someones stereo system in their room and said
"thats a nice stereo." Naturally he showed up the next day with his own.
What was funny was that he was on his bike with the huge box strapped to his back. Not to
begrudge him his purchases he (or his parents) clearly had the money to send him to
the US for school, and let him buy what he wanted. It was just a funny sight.
When the dorms closed down for the winter break, all the
international students had to find somewhere else to live. Knowing that my parents
house was only a few miles from campus, Jack asked if he could stay with my family for the
month. I asked my mom and we decided to be generous and let him stay with us. He was a
reasonable guest, the main problem being his appetite. Whenever anyone went into the
kitchen for any reason, he would follow them in there and get something else to eat. Not
only did he not offer to pay for a share of the grocery expenses, he never even said thank
you once the entire time he was there or afterwards. Six years later my mother still talks
about what a rude houseguest he was. Needless to say he was not invited back into our home
the next school break. Guests0926-01
Several weeks ago my family was invited to child's birthday party.
It was a standard birthday party invitation albeit a cutesy one in line with the party
theme. Time, place, come dressed in theme attire, and please RSVP. I RSVP'd immediately
that we would be delighted to attend. That was 2 weeks ago.
Fast forward to two nights before the party. I came home and there
was a message on my machine that said, "Hi, we're so excited you're coming to the
party on Sunday. I've decided your entrance fee is 2 packages of hamburger buns, 2
packages of hot dog rolls, and a bag of ice! Can't beat that can you? See you then!"
No mention on the invitation that it was a potluck and the idea of an "entrance
fee" to a child's birthday party? I called another woman whose children were invited
and subtly asked if she was "asked to bring anything." Her response was,
"Yeah, my entrance fee is 2 bags of ice, 2 2-liter bottles of soda, and a tossed
salad."
The only valid reasons for backing out of an affirmative RSVP is
serious illness (your own) or death in the family. In all honesty, I woke up the day
before the party with a serious headache and sore throat and by the evening I was running
a fever. The party is an hour from my house, so this is a situation where I cannot drop
the kids off and come back for them!
This almost tops the party (same hostess) where I had declined the
invitation due to a prior commitment. The hostess said, no, just show up an hour late,
it'll be no problem--unfortunately I took her at her word. I showed up late as I had told
her I would be, and since the ponies she had hired were about to leave, she announced that
if all parents would chip in $50 the ponies could stay another hour! Needless to say, my
kids DIDN'T get a pony ride!! And when I said, 5 HOURS later that I really had to leave as
it was past my children's bedtime, she announced to the entire party that it was so RUDE
to leave before the pinata, and then told her husband to go hang it up! This was at 8:30
at night and we had arrived an hour late at 3:30 pm--meaning other guests had been there
since 2:30. How long are children's parties SUPPOSED to last? I'm guessing that's the last
party invitation from the same hostess to which I'll ever RSVP in a positive manner!
Guests1002-01
My brother and his wife used to invite our family to their house for
holidays. My sister in law is a great host and serves wonderful food for our large family
(5 siblings). Three years ago, they hosted their last holiday for the whole family. The
reason they no longer have all of us to their house is because of my youngest sister's
husband, "Vern."
Vern is an interesting character. He thinks he is a lot smarter than
he is. But, beyond that, he has some serious hygiene issues. He and my sister had a 3 year
old son and an infant daughter. Their son had not been potty trained yet. One thing that
Vern did was change his diaper on a rug in one of the bedrooms and smear things on the
rug, left the dirty diaper on the floor, and didn't offer to clean the spots on the rug.
We ate the Christmas meal at 1pm. Then, that evening, we ate
leftovers. Vern's son was ready to eat, so Vern went to the kitchen to fix his meal. He
pulled a pan of homemade macaroni and cheese out of the refrigerator, reached in and
grabbed a handful, then plopped it on the plate. My sister in law was horrified and
immediately threw away the rest of the pan (Please remember the hygiene issues). The
amazing thing was that he was not aware that he did anything wrong! Now, whenever we
gather, we set up a diaper changing station, and we fix his plate. It's just easier that
way. but my sister in law never invited the whole family to their house again. And I don't
blame her! Guests1128-01
My children and I visited my parents' home for Christmas. I have
been dating a man for a little over two months and, after clearing it with my parents,
invited him to visit us for a day during the stay there. He lives two hours away, but the
day visit arrangement was fine.
On Christmas Day, he showed up, unannounced, with his two hungry
children who he had picked up for visitation. The Christmas dinner had been put away hours
before and my mother felt she had to drag all of the food out to take care of them. The
children turned their noses up at the offerings, but loaded up on cookies and later
started a wrestling/tickling contest on the sofa and over the glass furniture in my
parents' home. I was mortified. I thought it couldn't get much worse, but Mr. Wonderful
decided to exercise his parenting skills right there in front of everyone. He told his son
if he couldn't correct his behavior by himself, he'd correct it for him. (Okay, the
behavior was to pick up the kids on Christmas Day, let them open a couple of presents,
stuff them in the car to drive for two hours to some stranger's house, eat a bunch of
high-sugar treats and then have to sit still and watch TV while younger sister started up
a tickle contest.)
It turns out Dad's method of correcting behavior was to force the
boy to hit the floor and do 75 push-ups and for each sound the kid made in his own
defense, he got 20 more. While he was doing the pushups, Super-Dad would ridicule him and
tell him he was doing them wrong and to start over. I left the room I was so disgusted.
Now, it turns out that this man cannot figure out why I don't want to see him again. Duh.
Guests1230-01
This past weekend I decided to go and visit a friend who lives 4
hours away in a small town outside Boston. She and her husband had just bought a house and
she was 5 months pregnant(first child). My husband couldn't go due to work and considering
I had been trying to visit her for several weeks I finally had the opportunity to
"Vacation". The last visit we had was 3 months ago with the whole family. I have
a daughter 3 and a son 6.
I offered to make her window treatments and I had just finished her
bedroom sheer curtains. She was anxious to have them. My husband offered to watch our
children but my friend said she would love to see them and besides they had just gotten a
new puppy. I told her my kids are not really dog friendly (due to not having one and bad
past experiences). I was willing to give it a try. The ride up was a dream, my children
were so behaved as the last time.
We get there as planned and we even bought the puppy a gift in
addition to the window treatments for my friend. Upon entering the house, the puppy
freaked my son out and immediately started chasing him around the house. while my son
screaming/crying for cover, My friend and her husband giggled a bit but soon yanked the
puppy back and held him for 2-3 minutes just to have the same thing happen again. The dog
peed on the floor and my son nearly did too. My 3 year old was startled, and reacted
nervously by climbing up my chest.
After they screamed at the dog and I trying to explain to my
children not to panic, things seemed to calm down for a while. My friend showed us our
rooms and said "Oh this is going to be the babies room, the kids can play in
here" I thought that would be fun for a little while. Leaving the room I happened to
notice a dog cage in the hall. I asked if they ever use it and her reply was only when
they went to work. OK. So the cycle continued, Puppy, chase, scream, yell at puppy, yell
at son, stay puppy stay son.....My son started seeing a pattern, that if he walked around
the dog or even moved to another room the puppy would get up and chase him. This didn't go
so well. So my friend suggested to my children, to go upstairs and play in the bedroom.
"close the door sweetie if you don't want the dog to come after you." She says.
I in turn send them to the "cage" bedroom two more times, each time they got
more and more fidgety and I started reprimanding them more for getting into trouble. They
are not enjoying this at all. I did not expect my children to spend their vacation in
someone else's room and entertain themselves. Nor did I expect my friends to put their
puppy away, but I started to feel as if my friend felt fine by putting my kids in the
bedroom.
My children deserved to spend time with me too. This started to
infuriate me. So I suggested to go for a walk to the park to get out of the house. My
friend took the puppy to a large grass field. I noticed she was trying to train her puppy.
Then she started smacking it and hitting it. I asked if she thought that hitting was
effective and she commented that she only does it because her husband trains the dog that
way. Well, after coming home. I laughed to myself thinking there are three
"puppies" in her home. Only our discipline styles were different.
Next scenario... Right before dinner, My friend reported that she
had plans to go out to the movies with 4 friends that meet once a month. I asked Why she
didn't tell me this when we spoke a week before. She said she wasn't going to go because
she would rather spend the night with me but that her four friends were coming over anyway
for a spaghetti dinner and then would leave for the movie. I haven't seen her friends
since her wedding 5 years ago so I wasn't that upset.
After dinner, I cleaned up the dishes and started to get my children
ready for bed. Remember the puppy hasn't slept and I was exhausted from the drive. Their
movie started at 9:40 and when I came downstairs expecting to see just my friend, the
girls were still sitting around the table. It was 10:00. I said, "you guys missed the
movie". My friend said there was someone else coming over. Cut to the chase. We all
went to the living room for them to talk about each other, and their lives mostly, and by
1:00 AM I was holding my eyes open with toothpicks. I spoke 2 sentences to my friend.
Next day....... I noticed her husband sleeping on the couch( he had
gone out and didn't come home until late) Breakfast was fine there were only a few puppy
chases only because my children were in the "cage". The worst is yet to
come....I heard some banging noises from the "cage" so I raced upstairs to see
what had happened. My 3 year old took the sliding closet door off the track. I reprimanded
my children who were stir crazy and told them that this type of behavior was not
tolerated. My son was so unhappy, and just then, my friend starts to yell at my children,
telling them that they will never be able to come and visit again. Then I yelled at my
children because I was embarrassed that my friend yelled at them. My friend went
downstairs to see her husband. I walked in just as they were talking about the incident.
Her husband said, "If I ever did that when I was a kid my father would have taken a
stick to me." In other words I said " you think I should hit my kids?"Then
my friend tells me my children are undisciplined and have no respect for me..........
Now my friend telling me this, I don't take criticism from my
parents! but for some reason I hold my tongue. My children apologize for what they did and
mind you this was the worst behavior I have ever seen in my children. Could I have
convinced anyone otherwise???? Regardless. they were quiet for about 1 hour. Then they
came out of the "cage" and the puppy saw my son. OH LORD! We were going to stay
for lunch but I had promised my son a visit to my brothers who lived only 20 minutes away.
My children were never so happy to leave. We left fast. My feelings as I drove away were
"Just wait until you have children of your own..." and until then, I will never
come and visit with my children again. It will be a while before I forgive my friend too.
There are so many more little instances I can't even count that just
made this weekend a nightmare. By the way my children were back to normal at my brothers
house. When I returned home I sent my friend a thank you card and then told her I prefer
not to visit with the kids again. She was very upset and called me about this. I told her
how embarrassed I was and she basically said her puppy was more behaved than my kids. Well
that's all I remember now I want to forget. How do I know we are not welcome any time
soon?...Well I left my sons sneakers up there and told her to keep them until I return.
Her reply..."oh don't worry they will be in the mail"......life is a comedy and
comedy is life. Guests0525-01
My husband and I had become friendly with another couple and had
them over to our home 2 times for dinners. (At the time they were in the middle of packing
and moving so they said they would have us for dinner in return once they moved...fine.)
We are not rich but we always make the effort to have nice foods and wine and a pretty
table setting with linens, etc.for dinner guests. (This does not have to cost very much at
all with a little thought and creativity). Well, we were eventually invited to their home
for dinner. This consisted of a broiled chicken breast each, 2 sliced tomatoes and an
already opened and half-eaten Sara Lee cake. That was it. Period. After one glass of wine
each there was no more to be had. Instead of napkins of any sort we got folded up paper
towels. There was no juice or soda...just tap water. These people are very comfortable
financially. Whew..tacky! Guest0114-02
As someone who entertains a lot,
I've been perplexed over the years at the near total lack of reciprocity by our guests.
It's as if I had gained the reputation of the "Party Lady" and no one
wanted to usurp my title. I've concluded that some people are "Takers" but
others are simply entertaining challenged. So, your friends are at least making an
effort and should be encouraged to continue with the hope that they continue to refine
their hosting. But I am loath to put anyone in Etiquette Hell because the food
selection was not up to a guest's expectations regardless of how much money the
guest presumes the host has.
My husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last year
with a big, pull-out-all-the-stops fancy party. We hired a fancy caterer, had a live band,
and "black tie optional" was on the invitation. Wanting to encourage mingling
and circulation among the guests, we decided to have lots of gorgeous little nibbles
instead of a sit-down dinner. Among our choices were puff pastry stuffed with crab, wheels
of baked Brie, puff pastry with spinach and feta, scallops wrapped in bacon, little tarts
filled with roasted peppers and Boursin, and so on. Then among the desserts were
cheesecake, a "Chocolate Eruption" cake that was fabulous, fresh fruit, and
deliciously tart Key Lime pie. Very fancy, lovely food. In other words, along with our
open bar, there was more than enough food and drink for each of our nearly fifty
guests.
The party could not have gone more beautifully. I was silently
congratulating myself the next day when I mentally counted heads and realized that two
guests had never shown up--I had subtracted two from the final number I gave the caterer,
figuring (sadly, but that's this day and age) that we would have a couple of no-shows and
we didn't want to pay for them. So I felt a little smug that we'd paid for exactly the
number of people we actually had.
Well, a few weeks later, after the photographs came back from our
beautiful evening, I was showing them to a friend and she said, "I was surprised by
how late the Chapmans, Loessers, and Finleys were." I said, "Yes, I noticed that
too," remembering that these three couples had arrived more than an hour after the
party had begun. "Well, you know why they were late, don't you?" my friend
asked. I didn't, but she told me that these three idiot couples were late because they
had gone out to dinner together before the party! What complete el stupido
guests! My friend and I discussed it some more and realized that these three couples had
really only nibbled from the dessert table once they'd arrived at the party--so all my
feeling smug about having paid for the exact right number of guests flew out the window as
I realized that my husband and I paid a hefty $30 per head (or $180 total) for these six
inconsiderate people to eat only dessert. I was steamed! Guest0115-02
I have a few stories of house guests from hell for your
website. Number 1 My family had a large home on a semi-large plot of land when I was
growing up and we often found ourselves having people staying with us through out the
summer. For the most part my family didnt mind, as these were brothers and their
families and old friends. Then one day we got a call from my uncle, my father's youngest
brother, asking if my parents wouldnt mind having his friends, a wife and husband,
stay with us for a week or two so they could enjoy the fishing, as we lived in a community
known world wide for its wonderful fishing and large catches of different kinds of salmon.
T
hat first summer they were the best houseguests you could imagine
and when they called the following spring my parents told them they were more than welcome
to come and stay with us again in the summer. Well it started when they showed up with
their 2 kids and 2 of the childrens friends. But as my sister and I were about the
same age it wasn't too much to handle.
Well things went from bad to worse when the kids were constantly
rude to my parents and often tried to cause trouble for my sister and I. The second
problem happened when they announced that they were planning on spending the entire summer
with us (we were only expecting them to stay for a week or week and a half tops).
One day my father decided to bring out his three-wheeler motorbike.
As I have always been a bit of a tomboy I already had a fairly good understanding of how
to ride it but I still never went above first gear (as they take quite a while to stop and
they are easy to tip when doing a corner at a high speed). I did a few laps around the
yard on the bike, with my father watching, and then they youngest of the 2 sons of our
guests wanted to try. Well after a few minutes my father had to go answer a call from his
boss inside (I had already went inside earlier) and he told the kids not to touch the bike
till he came back outside. Well my father wasnt in the house for more than 2 minutes
when the whole house shook and there was the loud unmistakable sound of glass breaking. It
ends up that the boys didnt wait for my father to return and had decided to back the
bike up and then start it up and drive straight at the side of the house. Well he
destroyed the bike plus he broke 3 windows in our home due to the impact.
When my father asked the guests for some help to pay for the cost of
the new windows they said not a problem. But the next day when my dad went to go pay for
the new windows they told him they had to run to the bank so my father told them he would
just pay for it and the guest could pay him back later that day. Well my father came home
and the guest had went to a garage sale and bought my parents a used coffee maker (my
parents had 3 that were always in plain view in the kitchen) and told him that the price
of the coffee maker was more than enough to pay him back for the windows (the windows by
the way cost my father almost 300 dollars a piece to replace due to the fact that they had
to be ordered specially). But at least they didnt stay longer than another 2 days
after that. The next spring when they asked to come spend the summer again my father
politely declined.
Number 2 About a year after my parents bought their home their
friends bought a home themselves and sold their trailer. When they found that there was
going to be about 2 weeks from when they were to be out of the trailer to when they could
move into their home my parents offered for them, and their 2 sons to come and stay with
us. This ended up ruining a 15-year friendship.
Their older son, who was in his late teens, was quite the
troublemaker and had been in trouble with the law more than once. Two days before they
were supposed to be able to move into their home their son decided to have a party in our
basement (everyone else was out for the nite). Well someone took a knife to the wood panel
walls, they drank all of my parent's home made wine, a lot of my mothers jewelry
went missing, plus there were stains all over my parents furniture. Things would
have went better if the husband of the couple had not told my father "well you should
have known better to have left (sons name) here alone". Needless to say they
stayed in a hotel till they could move into their home.
Guest0121-02
You have to understand that I was brought up with "Miss
Manners" as my mother. My mom was a wonderful woman who constantly championed the
importance of good manners and empathy in dealing with others and I miss her advice
immensely. Anyway, this concerns a member of the other side of the family.
Every year or so, we take a family vacation together and rent a
house. The group includes our immediate family(husband & kids)and most of my husbands'
family. There have been some problems in the past with behavior, but I tend to swallow my
comments just to keep peace. This year we allowed our daughter to bring her boyfriend with
her, as she is older now and all the other siblings and cousins are much younger than her.
Since we use our relatives' vehicle, we called to ask for permission for "Mike"
(we'll call him) to ride with us as his vehicle was not always reliable and there was room
for him in hers'. She agreed but said Mikes' mother had to give a signed note relieving
her of any responsibility of him. Being that he is 18, it is a moot point since he is
legally responsible for himself. My husband said just ignore her.
Since it takes approx. 23 hours to reach our destination, we drive
about halfway and get a hotel room. We decided to get 2 rooms, have "Mike" and
our son room with us and have our daughters room with their grandmother. We offered to pay
for her room, but were refused. She came over to see our room and immediately said how
much cleaner ours was, it smelled better and there were no bugs. Naturally, we offered to
change rooms. No, she would rather just keep the original room and b**** about it.
On to the vacation home, which since we arrive earlier than expected
(totally our fault) is not ready. She proceeds to say she has a medical condition and must
get to the house asap (she has a bladder problem which she will not get fixed) just so
they will let us in. We arrive at the house, which is lovely and proceed to pick out
bedrooms while waiting for the other relatives to arrive. Later that evening at bedtime we
all settle in and only after we got home did my daughter tell me that my MIL had handed
"Mike" a blanket and a pillow and told him that since it was so nice outside he
could sleep on the deck! (with all bugs)
She complained about the food everyone bought, even though between
me and my 2 sister-in-laws we bought over $400.00 worth of food and supplies and she spent
maybe $75.00. She let "mike" and my daughter borrow her vehicle to go to a
museum, then proceeded to caution them about how expensive gas had been and not to drive
around too much, even though during the whole trip she paid for gas 1 time over the course
of a 2100 mile trip, we paid the rest of the time. We split the cost of the house rental
between the families, but she never pays her share, which I'm sorry, but I don't think
that's fair.( the house we got this year was $1600.00 of which her share would have been
about $275.00 since she is alone and the other relatives have more people in their
families, we pay more than her because we feel for her to pay an equal amount would be
unfair to her.) I guess she feels that since we use her vehicle (which is cleaned
thoroughly and maintenanced by my husband and I at our expense) she should not have to pay
for hardly anything. I'm not being greedy, I just feel resentful that I am essentially
paying for most of her vacation and then I have to listen to her complain all the time.
We ended up driving straight through on the way home (24 hrs) to put
an end to the misery and complaints. My kids said that my MIL was constantly rolling her
eyes and sighing anytime any of them said anything to her. As a kicker, a few weeks after
we got home, we were having a pool party to honor a relative of mine that was visiting.
"Mike" was invited and he handed me an envelope. I opened it and found a
beautiful thank-you card and gift cards to a restaurant near our home for taking him on
vacation with us. I took it out to show my husband (big mistake) and he showed it to his
mother. Loudly (very loudly) she says, "Where's my gift card? After all you rode in
my van!!!" I was mortified. She was deadly serious. I pulled "Mike" aside
later and said "do not get her anything, she was way out of line" We paid for
the bulk of the trip, put up with her bull**** and she acts like she was never taught
manners in her life. Maybe it's me, but I expect common decency and manners especially
from family members. Thanks for letting me get this off my chest!
Guest0209-02
A newly married couple invited me and my husband to their home
for dinner. I had just met the bride, but hadn't met her husband. My husband had never met
either of them. When we sat down for dinner, the woman passed around a bowl of chili. We
each took modest portions. As soon as everyone was served, the man commented that there
was enough still in the pot for leftovers the next night. Promptly the woman took the pot
away and put it in the fridge. My husband and I ended up going to McDonald's on the way
home because we were so hungry!
Guest0217
I had a baby in November of 2001, and in my family the baby shower
is generally thrown after the baby is born so that people that would otherwise not see the
baby would be able to. We waited until February to have the shower because of Christmas
being a hectic season. My aunt very generously invited my husband's family as well as my
own, and my mother-in-law and two sister-in-laws attended.
I arrived at their house to drive them to the shower as none of them
drive to discover that my mother-in-law is upstairs finishing up a bottle of rye. She is
not even able to walk in a straight line, and is slurring her words. My youngest
sister-in-law who is only 11, asked me to help her wrap the gifts as she was having
problems, while her mom insulted her and told me that it was all a waste of time and money
anyway.
So we get in the car to go to the shower and my mother-in-law
insists that it is her job to bring wine to the shower...so she insists that I stop at the
liquor store. I do not drink at all but I stop anyway just to make things easier on
everyone. She gets back in the car with 4 bottles of alcohol, and says "One is for
the shower, the others are for me". Ok, this is her decision, but she decided to open
one there and starts to drink it from the bottle. So, we head to the shower and get lost
on the way, but after stopping at a convenience store and getting directions, we make it
there without any further problems.
We get into the house, where my mother-in-law stumbles and turns and
tells my aunt (the host) that she should be nice to guests and not trip them. My aunt was
probably 4 feet away from the woman and in no way could have tripped her. I introduce
everyone and after visiting for awhile start to open the gifts. After opening the gifts,
my mother-in law announces that she would have thought that my relatives should have spent
more money on the gifts. For the next couple of hours, my relatives were insulted by my
mother-in-law who then got sick on the carpet, but washed away the taste by drinking the
wine she brought right out of the bottle.
As the guest of honor I should not have been the first to leave, but
decided that I should get her home. I thanked everyone for everything, and said that it
was so good to see them all...when my mother-in-law announced that I was lying and that I
hated them all...which is totally not true. She asked if she could take the rest of the
wine home but was told that it was all gone, so she yelled that my relatives were all just
a bunch of lushes and that they should be ashamed of themselves, and that she would never
let them see my child again. I took her home and on the way she told me that she was so
glad that I was part of her family, because it looked that I needed some good wholesome
family values in my life. It was all I could do not to laugh as I come from a great
family, who (by the way) has forgiven my mother-in-law and were very tolerant of her.
Guest0219-02
My story could be titled "The Christmas Party from Hell".
As a newlywed I threw parties for most major holidays and had gotten a good reputation for
them. Until...the ill-fated Christmas party. This particular year we decided to invite a
childhood friend of my husband's with whom he had recently become reacquainted. We'll call
him Tom and his wife Jane.
Tom and Jane are from quite different backgrounds than most of our
friends and had little in common with them, but everyone seemed to be getting along until
Jane began to get a little drunk. She then began to thrust her ample bosom in any man's
face in her vicinity. She used these "props" to reenact a story in which she was
nearly arrested while wearing a bikini top and very short shorts. Next she enthralled us
with a graphic description of her Caesarean section as we tried to eat the chili I had
prepared.
At this point people began to leave. I made my apologies to them as
best I could and tried not to provoke anymore entertainment from Jane, but unfortunately
things only got worse. We were subjected to tattoos in questionable places, red punch
spilled on my beige carpet, and the topper of the evening, the revelation that her
husband's nickname was "King Dong"; we could all guess why. The evening was all
but a disaster, but the funniest thing is, the next day we received an e-mail from Tom
saying what a great time he and Jane had and how they really don't get out that much. I
wonder why! Guest0220-02
Here is a story about a person I christened
"The Rudest Guest in the World." I recently had the extreme displeasure of
having "Bill" at my house for the weekend. Bill and my husband have been friends
for years, but since we live about 250 miles from each other, we only see each other about
once a year.
My husband and I have been married
about six years, so Bill had been to our home at least 6 times. NOT ONCE did he bring a
gift. No housewarming gift, no "thanks for your trouble" gift, nothing. Mind
you, when he would visit, he would sleep in our guest room, use our bathroom, partake of
our food, the whole she-bang. Oh, and did I mention that he always complained about the
bed in the guest room? Yes, supposedly it was "too mushy" for his liking. And he
didn't say this one time, or even in a joking manner. EVERY SINGLE TIME he was in our
home, he made the same comment. Classy, huh?
My husband and I purchased a house
recently, and Bill was coming to stay for a night, as he had done SIX times before
(bearing no gift, as I said, and of course, writing no thank-you note for our trouble). So
Bill shows up with, guess what? NO GIFT. He proceeds to come into our home, put his FEET
UP ON OUR NEWLY PURCHASED coffee table, and make himself comfortable. We go out to dinner,
and it's snowing, so my husband is locking up the house, and I grab the snow scraper and
start scraping the car. Bill GETS IN THE CAR and sits, like a king in a litter while I
SCRAPE THE CAR. We have an uneventful dinner, and the bill arrives. We inform Bill that
his portion is $35, and he opens his wallet, looks at his $53 (which I saw because he has
one of those billfold wallets, and says, "I DON'T THINK I HAVE ENOUGH." Excuse
me? So what, we're supposed to pick up the tab?!
Finally, he wises up and says, "Well,
I GUESS I have enough, but I need to keep some money on me to get home." Newsflash:
We have ATMS all over the place, but I guess Bill figured that we'd just make up the
difference. And then I remember...this is the guy who gave us an $8.00 cheeseboard for a
wedding gift. It was not on our registry. Our wedding was a very elegant, >$100 per
head affair. The gift my husband gave Bill for being a GROOMSMEN was about 4 times as
much. And the guy was/is doing just FINE financially.
When we arrive home he SHAKES OUT HIS snowy
jacket on our hardwood floor, and walks away, figuring, I guess, that the maid (me) would
clean it up. The next morning he showers in our bathroom and...I'm sorry to be so vulgar,
but it's true...leaves HAIR in the bathtub. Short and curlies. EEEWWW!!! How disgusting. I
cook breakfast and he comes downstairs and makes some comment about how the bed (we
purchased a new bed for our guest room) is "so much more comfortable!" I said
nothing, just continued to make breakfast. When he's done eating, he pushes his chair back
from the table, LEAVING HIS PLATE, ETC. ON THE TABLE, and says, "I guess I'll take
off now." Again, I guess he assumed that the maid (um, me) would clean up. Do you
believe this guy?
He and his wife were in town a few weeks
later and came by. My husband was showing her around the house and when they got into the
guest room, Bill said, "They bought a new bed. Remember I told you about the old
one?" "Oh, yes," says his wife. "He complained about that all the
time!" Not only do we have ATMS, but we have hotels, which I wished I had told him to
stay in. Do you believe this guy?! Guest0315-02
As the graduation season comes to a close I am still
fuming over what took place at a friend of mine's son's graduation party. I offered to
help put on a rather large BBQ for him and spent many hours shopping for food, bringing in
lawn furniture, stringing lights, preparing food, etc. and my friend appreciated
everything I did. The rude people were the other guests.
I am known as a good cook and my contributions to our get-togethers
are always the first to be eaten. Well, this time, I put a large kettle of food in the
kitchen and went outside to help set up tables and whatnot. When I went back into the
kitchen, I found 4 women who supposedly also came early to help set up, leaning on the
island, laughing, talking, and EATING MY CASSEROLE!! It was more than half gone. I angrily
said "You are not supposed to be eating that now. There won't be any left (I glanced
into the pan) There isn't any left." The ring leader looked at me, food in hand (Yes,
in HAND, no fork) and spat out "OH WELL!" All the ladies (?) looked at each
other, laughed and continued with their conversation. I appreciate the value of laughter
to diffuse a tense situation, but I despise it when people use it to deflect their own
rudeness or insensitivity. Their message to me was not only were they going to victimize
me, but also attempt to ridicule me for my very appropriate anger.
Guest0615-02
I teach at a school for rather wealthy children. At the end of each
year, out of the kindness of their hearts, some of them host "parties" for the
student body and staff. Well, the students enjoy the meal and conversation, some get
carried away with the food, but nothing like the teachers. A sports teacher, in
particular, apologies to all sports teachers, has arrived arrived at the party two years
in succession, loaded his plate with food till it was falling of the sides and then, as
the bell went for the beginning of the next lesson, proceeded to shout at the top of his
voice at students who had just supplied all the food, to get back to class, spitting
gobbets of cream cake and chicken all over the host and myself. Yeah!!! We had a good
chuckle on the way out. Guest0314-02
For my 25th birthday, my loving boyfriend decided to throw me a
party. On the guest list was one of my co-workers, "Sheila." The day of the
party, I worked the overnight shift (1:30AM to 10:30AM), then attended class from noon to
4PM. I was exhausted, but there was no time to nap - I had to take care of last-minute
party details. The party started at 7PM, and the night went off without a hitch.
By 1AM, guests were heading home. Except Sheila... and a college
friend, "Josh." Although I was obviously exhausted (yawning, nodding, even
swaying on my feet) Blubber and Josh continued to stick around... and stick around... and
stick around... until 3:30AM!! I tried everything to make it plain how tired I was, but
they never got the message. On Monday, I found out why. Apparently, Josh and Sheila were
"on the prowl" and hoped my party would turn into something more between them.
[Insert aghast expression here] To make it worse, after their date the next weekend, each
told me what a waste it was. My only consolation was that each claimed the date was the
worst they'd ever been on. Jerks. Guest0625-02
When I lived in San Francisco, I don't think I ever got to
take a vacation. Every friend from back home (Iowa), even friends of my parents and people
I had not seen since college, were delighted to come and spend their vacations with me.
Usually, I would receive an e-mail that said something like, "We were thinking the
third week in June might be a good time to come out and see you!" I never followed up
with an invitation to stay in my small apartment or made any offers to pick them up at the
airport or act as chauffeur or tour guide, yet it was always assumed that I would be so
over-joyed to have their company that all I needed was the date and time of their arrival
at SFO.
The absolute worst was my old college friend "Shelly." She
let me know of her plans in this same way, to which I replied that it would be good to see
her again and I hoped we could get together for dinner one night during her stay. Shelly
wrote back to let me know (using many exclamation points to demonstrate our shared
excitement) that I had misunderstood her and she would be able to stay with me for a whole
week!! I still don't know why I didn't make myself very clear and decline her generous
offer. I suppose I figured she would be a low maintenance guest and it might be fun. I
should have known better when I picked her up at the airport and she spent the 20 minute
drive complaining about her flight.
Once I showed her my tiny apartment, she looked unimpressed and a
bit concerned at my phone-booth sized bathroom. Then she asked what we would have for
dinner. I explained that the cost of living in the city was kind of high, so I didn't go
out to eat much. I asked if she would like to go to the Safeway and get some food for the
week. She looked at me like I was crazy. I told her I had bagels and cereal for breakfast
in the morning and implied she could help herself. I almost laughed at her shocked
expression, so I asked Shelly if she was expecting breakfast and lunch and dinner? She
replied, "Well, YEAH."
The next morning as I prepared to leave for work, I showed her where
I kept the spare key to the apartment and set out a map and a Bart schedule. When I came
home that afternoon, Shelly had not left the apartment all day and then complained about
the noise of the city and how dirty and old everything seemed. I politely asked what she
did all day and she said, "Nothing. I've just been waiting for you." Feeling
guilty for assuming she could amuse herself, I called my manager and being used to such
situations herself, she gave me the rest of the week off. The week dragged by, with Shelly
complaining about the cost of getting around in this dirty old city and not understanding
what was so "romantic" about it. She never offered to treat me to breakfast,
lunch, or dinner, and she started out each morning asking what we were going to do all
day. When I finally took her back to the airport for her trip home, she had the nerve to
ask when I would be coming back to visit Iowa. Through clenched teeth I mumbled something
about not having any vacation time left at work. Guests1031-02
First let me say how much I enjoyed the site! Your stories about bad
guests reminded me of something that happened just after I got married. My (now ex)
husband *Mike* was living in a small town about 500 miles away. By the time I had moved
there I was thrown into the middle of large circle of people I knew nothing about. I knew
names and a few stories but very little about what else was going on.
One day he came home from work and very happily announced that his
closest friend *Bob* and his family were in town. Unfortunately it was for Bob's FIL's
funeral. He had invited them to dinner. I was looking forward to meeting them and knocked
myself out by making a pretty nice dinner. That went well and everyone had a good time.
They couldn't afford much for a place to stay so Mike offered to let them stay with us.
Just a few days.. how bad could it be, right? We set them up in our spare bedroom.
First we had to go rent a crib for Bob's daughter. Surely they
couldn't expect her to sleep with them. ($25 that we never got back). Second, Bob's wife
could not possibly be expected to sleep on the air mattress we bought for them to use
($19.95)! So we put our bed in the extra room and used the air mattress. Bob's wife helped
herself to all of the counter space in the bathroom. They bought several bags of
groceries. Bob said he liked LOTS of coffee so he bought a large can. Little did I know
that this bag would be the last... and they would burn through all of it in less than 48
hours. After that everything edible in the house became fair game.
Bob's wife started talking about having to pack up dad's things so
they could get ready to sell the house. She asked if we wanted to help and how could we
refuse? Just a few boxes of clothes and personal effects. So we went out there thinking we
would box up some books and clothes. FIL's house would have had to be upgraded to
condemned. It was a filthy, dilapidated shack that hadn't been cleaned in years..
literally. By the time we left, the "packing up a few things" had included
several trips to the dump, 3 or 4 hours of cleaning God knows what out of every room.. in
a house with no electricity, roughly 35 degrees outside.
Bob's wife wanted to get in touch with her old friends. We
specifically asked that our number NOT be given out. We had just had it changed a few
weeks earlier after receiving harassing calls from someone we knew from town. The second
day there she had given the number to everyone.. including the person we had changed the
number to avoid. So when they weren't chatting for hours, I was back to the harassing
calls.
Our apartment courtyard was being remodeled at that time and the
yard was nothing but dirt. I nicely asked that shoes come off at the door because of the
mud. They "forgot". Two hours every evening spent vacuuming and sweeping. Bob
and his wife liked to drink a lot.. not alcohol, just beverages in general. Every time one
of them went for a refill they would put the glass or cup they had been using in the sink
and get a new one. Dishwasher ran twice a day with nothing but glasses and mugs in it.
Bob's daughter was a sweet and bright child of about two, who liked to "put things
together". This meant picking up everything she could lay her hands on and look for
somewhere to put it. Car keys in the candy dish, earrings down the heating vent, etc. It
was a treasure hunt for weeks after they left.
Bob's wife liked to fake having amnesia when she didn't want to do
something. Bob would say he was tired of the act and go to bed.. leaving us to sit there
for hours while she wandered around asking who we were. Was this her place? Picking up
stuff and asking us if we remembered when she bought it. I have a daughter? Who's is it?
How did I get here? Who's Bob? This went on for nearly two weeks. I swore if another guest
ever came into the house I was filing for divorce. Guests1012-02
I have a couple of them for you: 1) One year my partner and I had
decided to throw a very small New Year's party for just a few of our friends. Since up
until that point we'd had few plans, and some of the people we invited had few plans, we
figured that this was a way for all of us to get together, pass the evening pleasantly,
etc. Obviously we wanted everyone to have a good time, so we went out and bought every
imaginable kind of party snacks and drink with the exception of alcohol -- everyone we
invited agreed not to drink because (A) it wasn't that important to any of us, and (B) one
of the guests was a recovering alcoholic, and we wanted him to feel comfortable.
Well, this same guy, "Nick," called an hour before the
party was supposed to start to ask if he could bring his friend "Suzie" with
him. It seems that when we invited him, he'd forgotten that he promised Suzie that they'd
go to the local bar to celebrate, and if he didn't provide somewhere for her to go, he'd
have to go there with her. We didn't figure that one extra person would be a problem. We
were obviously wrong. When they showed up, half an hour early, we were still scrambling to
get everything ready, and they came in expecting to be entertained right then. One of us
had to take time out to make sure they had everything they needed, etc. before we were
ready. Even that we took in stride.
However, when she arrived, she loudly announced to us, pointing at
her T-shirt with a picture of Dopey from Sleeping Beauty on it, "Don't worry, my
little friend doesn't drink much." She was obviously angry when I replied, "He
won't drink anything. There's no alcohol here." I haven't mentioned that she weighs
approximately 350 pounds, in itself not a problem -- we have several friends who are
overweight and carry themselves with a lot of grace and sensitivity. She didn't. She
proceeded to walk past us and literally drop herself on the couch, breaking the frame. As
a little time went by, we discovered she also had a hygiene problem, since her stained
T-shirt also smelled. She insisted on talking loudly about things we didn't need to hear
about and being the center of attention, such as her habit of stripping for the rest of
the bar when she had a few drinks in her.
I think probably the final straw was when the pizza arrived -- which
everyone but her insisted on chipping in for -- and she took the chips she was eating at
the time, on her own plate, and dumped them back into the bowl with the rest of them.
We've never had her, or Nick, back. And we sent the potato chips with them.
2) When I graduated from college, I had two graduations parties: one
for family and very close friends (some of whom had never met my family), one for everyone
else. I was never so glad that I separated the two. At the first, the graduation party for
my family, my mother graciously hosted the party. However, my younger sister acted as if
she were angry the entire time, prompting several guests to ask "what's her
problem?" My older brother and his wife stayed in one corner, glaring at everyone as
well. It took some time for my explanation that "oh, they're just like that" to
be accepted and for everyone else to go on and have a good time.
As if this weren't bad enough, the graduation party for friends got
a little out of hand. One guest couldn't stop talking about all the conquests that he'd
had, describing his exploits in detail (he was someone I didn't know very well but thought
he might be a better friend, so he'd received an invitation). Evidently, this spirit of
open and honest communication must have made another guest very comfortable. He went on to
make the rest of us very UNcomfortable, by describing how he'd given himself a Prince
Albert. (I'm not going to describe this -- if you don't know and are curious, please
investigate for yourself). Obviously there are some gifts one should choose not to unwrap
-- or send thank you notes for. Guests0922-02
My fiancé and I were invited by a college friend of his-Scott to
the Florida Keys for Labor Day weekend. Apparently his girlfriend Kathy's sister owned a
home in the keys and we were going to stay there for free. My fiancé- Mike and I are
STOKED. All we had to do was pay for airfare and food. This should have been an omen. You
get what you pay for.
We met Scott and Kathy in Philadelphia (we live in Baltimore) so we
could fly to the keys together. And that's when the trouble begins... Scott and Kathy had
been our guests and I thought she was a little strange but Scott seemed to like her.
Anyway, once we get to her Sister's home, Kathy promptly loses her mind and her manners.
She follows us around whining about how her sister will be upset if things aren't left
exactly as they're found. What are we? Gorillas? I think we can put dishes away without
her assistance. The appropriate response would have been
to ask her, "What can I do to help you?", and then busted butt to make sure
every dish was cleaned and put away, your bed made every day, the living area tidied up,
etc. As a guest you are beholden to your host to follow their house rules and
if said hostess is spastic about cleanliness, do your best to be the best guest you can.
She slammed the door behind me as I was hanging my swim suit on the
line- that was three feet outside the door. I open the door back up to hear her say to
Scott "My sister has to pay the electric bill. I don't think it's right that they
leave doors open". It was open for 20 seconds. I'd be more than happy to give her the
nickel that it cost. DId you offer to supplement the
utility bill by offering $10?
One night I made dinner- steak, twice baked potato, steamed
vegetables, and rolls. Never once did I get a thank you for dinner or buying all the items
for dinner but she proceeded to put her head down on the table and eat with her head on
the table! I couldn't imagine doing this at home. My mother would have killed me. The
icing on the cake was- she caused us to miss our flight home. She was so obsessed with
leaving dry clean towels (bear in mind, that no one was staying in the house until January
so no matter how clean the towels were, they'd be musty by the time anyone else used them)
that we ended up leaving 3 hours late for the airport. What should have been a 3 hour
drive ended up being a six hour drive and we missed our flight. We ended up taking a
flight back to Baltimore, renting a car and driving to Philadelphia to pick up our car and
turn right back around to drive home.
I have to admit that after this weekend from hell, that I lost my
temper with her in the airport. I said quite a few things I shouldn't have but apologized
later. One thing I learned- never go on vacation with anyone you don't know- WELL. Ever
since then I have refused to visit them. If she treated us that poorly in her sister's
home, what would she do in her own home? Our wedding is coming up and I am inviting them
to our wedding. I would prefer not to but I know Scott would not come without Kathy. I
can't deprive my future husband of one of his best friends just because I think his
girlfriend is a jerk. Guests0816-2
Regardless of how poor a hostess Kathy was, you still owe Kathy and
Scott a thank you note for the weekend AND a note to Kathy's sister.
My husband and I travel frequently, and have occasion to become
friendly with some of our hosts, and to make referrals to others seeking similar travels.
In the course of our trips we became friends with "Mark," who manages and
operates a number of vacation properties.
One of the people to whom I referred Mark's properties is
"David," with whom I'd corresponded about travel but never met in person. David
eventually took a trip, hiring one of Mark's properties, and raving about what a
successful trip he had. So pleased was David with Mark's management, that David seriously
considered buying a property of his own and placing it under Mark's management. As an
example of Mark's good management, David observed that when his wife soiled some
high-quality (read "expensive") bedding in the property with sunscreen, Mark
made him reimburse the cost of the bedding. Rather than being annoyed with Mark, David
agreed that it was appropriate to pay for the damage caused and wanted Mark exercising the
same care with his own vacation property.
A year later, my husband and I find ourselves staying in one of
Mark's properties again, and sharing the anticipation of our trip with David, who would be
staying with Mark the week prior to us. When we arrive, Mark is working hard to prepare
his properties for the next guests' arrival.
After we settle in, over drinks and dinner with Mark and his
assistant, we learn the true story of the soiled bedding from the prior year -- it was not
stained with sunscreen, but with self-tanning lotion, which turned the bedding
brownish-orange in spots and utterly ruined it. Mark used the money to purchase
replacement bedding, to maintain the high quality of the properties.
After this year's vacation, after David and his wife departed, Mark
discovered that David's wife TOOK the new sheets home with her, feeling it was her due
since she had "paid" for them. The next morning, we saw a stinking, slimy heap
of trash next to the property David had used the week before. It turns out that David and
wife had also stashed a week's worth of trash in the property, not bothering to dispose of
it properly. I just hope that Mark, who remains our friend, forgets that it was I who
referred David to him... Guests0705-02
Page Last Updated May 15, 2007
|