Can You Please Bring Dinner to My Party?

Have you ever been invited to someone's house and have them ask you to bring dinner?

No?

Well, as of this week, I have.

We have these friends that Hubby went to college with.  They're a lovely couple except that they're low talkers and the husband is a bit of a know-it-all.  Although, if you already know this about him, you sort of know what you're getting yourself into when hanging out with him and it's not that big of deal.  My only other complaint is that the husband can be a little socially, umm, retarded.

I'll tell you though, he's an engineer.  And as a woman who married an engineer and has A LOT of engineers walk in and out of her life, I am well aware that they can be a bit socially awkward.  Luckily, Hubby is on the lesser end of the socially awkward spectrum, but he sure has his moments.

Well, this guy falls a little further on the spectrum.  He's completely harmless and I get that. He's a little exhausting but I know plenty of people that I can say that for.

But then this week, he stole the cake.

He nicely invited us over to watch Hubby's college play a pretty big game that for a change was being nationally televised.  I accepted for us and made the mistake of asking if we should bring anything.

Before I get to what we were asked, let me tell you this.  This guy always makes very specific requests.  Hubby and I typically get a good laugh out of it.  One time, we asked this question and we were told to bring guacamole. Not, bring some dip or bring something to snack on before dinner.  It was "Stop and pick up some guacamole." Again, let me be clear.  He wasn't asking us to make some of my "famous guacamole that everyone just raves about" because a) that doesn't really exist--although I do make it and it is delicious and b) we received this request as we were walking out of the door.

So back to this time, I asked the question and his response was (paraphrased) "Wings would be nice. We're going to make that cheese dip that [Hubby] likes."

Umm, did he really just say "Bring dinner and we'll have one snack here that your husband likes but that you don't"?  I was stunned.  I was just asked to provide dinner for someone else's get together.

Something you should know about me. I love to host.  And I mean LOVE it.  Every reason there is to get everyone to my home, I will gladly do it.  I always cook enough for an army (true) and my Hubby always has enough to drink for an army.  I will have something of everything because my big [hosting] fear is that someone will leave my house hungry.  People ask me if they can bring anything when the come over but they always already know the answer. No, I'll have plenty of food.

The funny part is that this guy NEVER has enough food to feed half the amount of people that are at his house.  I guess his big [hosting] fear is to have leftovers.  I had already planned to have dinner before we went over and when Hubby asked why, he quickly agreed when I told him there was no chance they'd have enough food.

But then, I got the request. "Can you please bring dinner to my party?" Nuts. Just nuts.

Well, as an awesome host and a spiteful person, I refused to bring it.  I told him we were going to eat dinner before and I was just wondering if he wanted us to bring any game time snacks.  I never heard back from him. I'm sure there were some words spoken about me behind my back. OH WELL. They aren't the first and they won't be the last.