The Office Is Back, Finally

The Office returned tonight after many weeks without a new episode because of the writers' strike to my delight. The dinner party from hell hosted by Michael and Jan brought back memories of my own dinner party from hell experience several years back. While The Office episode may have been exaggerated for effect, I think everyone can relate to a similar experience. In my case, a co-worker invited several of us from work to he and his wife's partially-restored home. Dinner guests arrive promptly at 7:00 p.m. to discover wife had just returned from an afternoon with the kids--still in her very casual attire. Husband is rushing around frantically trying to play catch up preparing the dinner. Wife sits down at the kitchen table and starts barking out orders to the husband, such as "I want you to clean those dirty dishes now" as guests sit around sipping wine in disbelief. Wife finally retires to take a shower and clean up for dinner while guests watch husband doing it all himself. By the time guests sit down for dinner after an extended tour of the home, it's close to 10:00. Wife starts feeding dog pieces of her steak from the dinner table and engaging in sharp debate with whomever is tempted. When the first guest rises and says he's going to have to excuse himself because he has an early morning appointment to go jogging with a friend, I quickly jump at the opportunity to excuse myself as well. Wife proceeds to tell guests, "Well, why don't you all just get up and leave?", at which point everybody gets up from the table and leaves. A little tamer than Michael's and Jan's party, but you get the point.