FruHo Says Relax (?)

The Frugal Hostess would like to talk about relaxation. Yes, that topic is somewhat far afield from parties, but it makes a round-about kind of sense. To whit: if we entertain friends to have fun in our free time, then in some way it must be relaxing. Except, it is not at all relaxing, although still fun. Huh. The point is that, for FruHo, it is hard to relax, but it is not hard to celebrate or have fun, although those things are quite different.

What does this mean?

Don’t get your hopes up that this is gonna make sense.

OK. So, when TFH thinks about things that are relaxing, she thinks of getting a massage, sitting on a beach reading, watching movies on a rainy afternoon, etc. When TFH has free time, she rarely does any of the above things. Instead, she does cooking experiments, looks at every single thing in the thrift store, or tries to make a craft project. None of that is relaxing, although it’s fun. In fact, the idea of doing any of the things listed as relaxing up there makes FruHo feel so guilty that she just added another project to her to-do list (see therapist about guilt complex).

Don’t misunderstand: The Frugal Hostess isn’t pretending to be so incredibly busy that all she has time for is drinking espresso for dinner on her way to the next appointment; she will leave that level of martyrdom activity to mothers of small children. What she is saying, though, is that relaxation seems like a concept that exists in commercials but not real life. FruHo is happy and has lots of fun, so does she even need to relax? What does relaxation feel like? How do you know it’s time to relax, and how do you tell when you’re there?

Help a potentially uptight-without-even-knowing-it sister out in the comments.

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