grinch and grouch

[yflyn]

This morning I woke up from a dream feeling furious. I dreamt that J had somehow invited a whole bunch of his friends and strangers to our place and told them that I could easily cook a big dinner for all of them, no problem. I remember fuming as I chopped garlic and that I had to resort to cooking stuff in our teeny oven toaster, because there was not enough space in our kitchen or stove for all the food. And various people kept standing next to me as I tried to cook, annoying me even more. I had a bad headache when I awoke. Guess who's feeling the heat as Chinese New Year approaches? Last year J and I somehow managed to cook dinner for seventeen people in under two hours in our small kitchen. There were so many people that they had to eat dinner over two seatings. I am not sure if we can repeat the same feat this year, or if I even want to try, especially with The Bun underfoot. It's exhausting, and given my extreme dislike of the festival, it certainly doesn't bring any positivity into the occasion. Argh.

My best Chinese New Year was when we still lived in NYC: there was some skyping and some webcamming with family back home, and that was it. J and I had a proprietary reunion dinner of sorts on our own - scallops wrapped in bacon, mmm. No noisy music, no annoying relatives, no red and gold, no steamboat meals, no forced smiles and bad conversation. I never enjoyed it as a child, and I dislike it even more as an adult.

I'm like the Grinch of Chinese New Year, except that I have no desire for the festive treats or any of the red packets.