I was hesitant to post tonight's blog. It's a topic which could get me busted in certain circles, but I have long since been opposed to censorship of any kind and so I blog. The reason I am so hesitant and concerned is the subject matter will undoubtedly be read by one particular follower who happens to be my mother. Now she's no stranger to my ways, but what she doesn't see won't hurt her, though she probably won't be shocked.
My parents, who are both retired, are heading off for the winter soon and I have been left in charge of two plants and mail pick up. So this weekend, 2 weeks before their estimated time of departure, they are coming down for a visit, to drop off the plants and to refresh my memory on how to run the snowblower. With this visit looming there is a certain amount of panic I am dealing with. To describe my house as chaotic at the moment, would be like describing the dessert and a touch on the dry side. There are reasons for the insanity, largely I am never home, I'm away at their house, or visiting friends or organizing charity events and retirement parties. And when I am here in the evenings after an 8 hour day of work, followed by an hour or so at the gym, followed by making dinner and preparing a lunch, and of course blogging, the last thing I feel like doing is grabbing the Swiffer and giving the house the once over. I know I should, but its really just not my strong suit. Admittedly the biggest problem is that we are just coming out of the summer and I have had some fairly busy event filled weekends. I find my house is significantly cleaner and more organized in the winter months when its too cold to go outside and the weather is too unpredictable to be taking road trips.
Nevertheless, I fear I have let the state of the house slide into such disrepair that I have almost become too overwhelmed to deal with. Just to be clear, it's not a pig stye, I don't wallow in my own filth, a thin layer of cat hair and dust maybe, but certainly not filth. It's more a case of things that have accumulated or things that have been used, but not put away properly. These things are slowly taking over my office to a point where its almost more of a disarrayed storage unit. It's a bit like an ongoing yard sale collection, ironing boards, plastic wine glasses for camping, some wall art from when I was a child, shoes of any variety, stuffed animals, books, a clock that no longer keeps time, an old stereo, a printer that no longer works. The list could go on forever.
And now here I find myself on the precipice of ridicule with no more then a mere 48 hours to control the chaos. I took a big stab at things tonight and I have worked out an agenda for tomorrow and Saturday morning. Tonight I tackled the main floor, which was by far the easiest to undertake. Tomorrow the basement knows no mercy. Saturday morning will see the upstairs taken down like a lame gazelle. Clutter be ware! I am on to you and no nook or cranny is safe.
I am realizing now, one other fatal flaw with this blog. If she should happen to read it tonight or tomorrow and I don't quite climb that mountain to the summit, then she'll know I tried but failed... It is a risk I'll just have to take.
Wish me luck, and if there's no blog tomorrow, you'll know the junk has won!
Cheers,
This is your Mother speaking! Trust me dear, I was a young working woman not so many years ago myself and I know what it is like to work full time, try to have some sort of social life AND keep a house tidy. On top of that, we had you to raise and entertain. If you recall, I went into massive "panic overdrive" at the mere thought of company coming on the week-end for a visit because our house wasn't exactly spotless either. So don't stress too much about what I think.
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