Potluck

I got invited to a potluck dinner the other day. I've been recently wanting to find new friends, people my age who live close by, since all my friends are currently scattered across the globe. So when I received the invitation, I jumped at the chance to hang out with new people.

I made my famous lasagna (those of you who have eaten it know that's a good choice to bring if you want to make friends), decided not to change from my work clothes into something more casual, and drove to the address I was given. When I got to the house, I saw that it was actually a condo in a fairly new development where everyone has their own numbered parking space and the visitors all have to park in a lot in the center of the development. Let me rephrase. All the houses looked exactly the same, and I started humming "Little boxes, little boxes," the theme song to Weeds.

The condo was very nice, if a little small. Both the hosts were dressed very nicely, as were almost everyone else. I started thinking that maybe I should have dressed up from my business slacks and blouse. But one thing that hit me very strongly was that this was a group of WASPs. No doubt about it, you couldn't get more WASPy than this group, save myself (marginally) and one guy who I think might be Puerto Rican.

Now, there's nothing wrong with WASPs; quite the contrary, I really enjoyed myself at the party. I was just struck by the homogeneity of the group. This was a stereotypical gathering of privileged white people, complete with stereotypical food that people brought: a ham, potatoes, salad, cheesecake, etc. I think my lasagna was the most "ethnic" food that was there. Again, the food was good. The conversation was good. It was a great success, that party. And yet...I just wish there was a little more diversity in the group. Everyone was just too...NORMAL.