Yes, we're well due for a knitting tea, but I like the idea of a department reception, too. I was recently attending a concerto concert and thinking how different the music world is from ours; their graduate students get to go out and buy fancy evening wear for their capstone events. I'm now starting to think that I should give my dissertation presentation in some kind of evening gown. Pantsuits are rather dull in comparison. And they don't give us the regalia until after the fact. But I think we could forego the dancing. There are some things musicians simply do better for good reason.
Also, the other reason for the reception: Our beloved chair assured me well over a year ago that I would, at some point in my life, need to have been able to discuss Dreiser's _Sister Carrie_ at some kind of a reception, and the occasion has not yet arisen. I'm betting it could come up if we had a department reception.
How well I recall a Military Reception where I, smartly turned out in my Mess Dress uniform (but no sword, Sam...I was always jealous of Navy guys who got to wear a sword) asked the Flight Surgeon's wife when her baby was due. She replied, in a voice which could have solved the global warming crisis, that she was not pregnant. I don't like receptions. No good can come of them that I can see, and although I've never been to a tea, I think the same would be true for them.
Ah, you've made me remember why I've always ducked the garden club and social groups here in our town!
I wonder how many well-meaning souls embarked on the Atkins diet, only to find that they now had to be able to discuss Cretan excavations at a moment's notice, or risk starving to death in the middle of a society function? Etiquette is merciless.
I'll have to remember that one doesn't necessarily need to know how to speak in order to have tea with others. That'll come in handy when I'm back working at Starbucks.
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