I have to get this out

Another long story....

When I was a kid, we had a beach house on the coast. It was an old place that has been in the family forever. If you are on the "in" about who built the house and such, I shall spare you. The place was a time capsule, and my grandpa wouldn't let anything change. There were lots of mis-matched chairs, dishes and towels. I don't know if it is because I'm gay or because I have OCD, but I spent allot of family vacations organizing. My grandma (supporting her homo grandson) would let me set the table for dinner. This was my shining hour..yes it took me an HOUR.

First I had to find plates, lets say dinner for six. If I could find four matching plates of one style and two of another the possibilities would be endless. That would be a good day. If not I could always count on three sets of two, so should they mix every other one? should the match across? Well that all depends on the glasses, If I could find matching glasses so every plate of the same style had a glass of the same style that would be great. The problem is Mel had to have a mug (hot water) it didn't go with anything, So sometimes I would set the table to match, but his setting would be different, Like a king! Someday I wanted to be king too. Someday I would have the fancy Victorian plate and the large knife with the initials "AD" Arthur Devers of course!

The problems arose when we would have guests, I would panic to make sure we did the best we could and have the best damn table in East Hampton...ummmm I mean Long Beach! I would go and get flowers and put them in a jar in the middle (thinking to myself...a jar really old people?) after I made the centerpiece I would open up the cupboards and start sorting the dishes, sorting and making like piles. Could this explain why i have so many COMPLETE sets of dishes today?

If somebody broke a dish I was crushed, If I heard the china hit the floor I would screech.. My family probably though that the "fragile child" feels bad over fancy things breaking, But they didn't understand that every broken dish meant that my system of table setting was now destroyed! Any thoughts?