Not a rant just an observation.....
We have known our good friends J and his wife G for close to 30 years now. G has always been "somewhat" anal but lately, say in the last decade, it has gotten off the charts! They have no children by choice but have recently gotten a pet dog called P, whom they treat as their only son.
They own a beautiful jewel box of a house (small but extremely well decorated) in a prime area west of the city. G pretty much refurnishes the house about every 5 years with new high end furniture. They have a Home&Gardens professionally landscaped back yard with a beautiful stone fireplace, outdoor kitchen with granite countertops, top end teak outdoor furniture, and of course professionally designed decorative planters. They have lived there for about 12 years.
We have NEVER been invited over! In fact the only time I've been over is when I've dropped in unannounced to "drop something off". Wait, we were invited over for their first New Years eve party after they first moved in. That was quite the occasion! If you left your near empty glass on a counter it was very quickly wisked away by G and put into the dishwasher. Our nephew, who was 7 at the time accidentally spilled some Coke on their off-white carpet in the basement to which J reacted in horror! J made all of us quickly go back upstairs to distract G so that she wouldn't come downstairs and witness the "carnage"! G gave J severe s h i t that night as she eventually found out what happened..it was obviously all his fault...
We have never been invited over since....
On the other hand, we have them over for many occasions.. family BBQs, new years eve, Christmas open houses, birthdays, etc...in fact both our dog and their dog's birthdays are celebrated at OUR place. They are probably over for some occasion about twice a month.
Don't want to make this post too long so I'll call it Part A!
And what about you guys?