Listing-toppling

Now that ‘those’ weeks are over, calendar-wise, certain chunks of citizenry are back to celebrating events and such-like auspicious shindigs.

To find the correct email address to send the invite is more difficult than to find out the correct home address, so why don’t we just post our invite on Facebook?

Which probably explains the increase in haggard faces.

Pity them – for shindigs means invitations, and invitations means: The Compilation of Lists, a task designed by Fate in a particularly mischievous mood.

First, you have to remember everyone – EVERYONE.

Now, this huge tribe of significants really matters to you, but you’re a little stunned – when and how did your life spread in so many directions – like a berserk amoeba doing a manic pseudopodic dance?

Second – people never stay still, merrily changing cities, houses, contact numbers. (Yet it’s illegal to sock potential invitees for failing to keep you informed.)

And the sudden appearance of ‘initials’ and ‘formal’ names – especially among those you always thought you knew so well – is very disorienting.

Something not so common back when your parents made up list is the ‘are-they-still-together’ factor – a fairly tricky, slippery slope.

So it goes – you remember, you check, re-check – and just when you think you’re done, you start running into all those who managed to slip through the cracks in your brain.

That meltdown you’ve been too busy to accommodate?

Now would be a good time.