Friday, January 15, 2010

I haven't actually done it yet but I am very, very close

I have been a bit of a slack poster lately and I have no excuses - still on holidays so should be able to manage a bit more.  I think I'm just in that cotton wool state where everything seems soft and fuzzy and and a little bit uninspiring-.the Summer Heat Blues.  But with less than two weeks left I am determined to put in a big effort on everything.  So here is the list - finish BOA books (get more paper, cut out prints, stitch etc), prepare texts for school (Wilfred Owen poetry, the Old Man and the Sea, Holes - a novel for year 8, and a unit on Celebrities), clean the house.

Surely that will do! Notice I listed quite specifically -  what I need to do for school and for BOA but cleaning house is a vague, generalized 'clean house'. Probably because if you saw my house you would understand why I don't want to go into specifics. I like to blame B and the two YAMs (young adult males)  who reside with me but in all honesty that is not very fair. I just hate housework!!! (and I don't use the 'hate' word loosely).

 I know I am not alone but there is this huge inconsitency between, one, my absolute hatred of all things housework and two, my desire to have a tidy house. It would be ok if I was one of those wonderfully liberated people who can invite people into their chaos with cool, confidence but I'm not even close.
Instead I feel I have spent my life since having children (22 years) trying to reconcile these two irreconcilable positions. 

So things are going to change.  I have decided to get a cleaner

What was that?

I have decided to get a cleaner.

Yes I am actually confessing publically to the petite bourgeoise practice of inviting a complete stranger into your house and inflicting on them the disposal and organisation of your decadent, capitalist lifestyle. (Notice I am using the pronoun 'your' here).  I haven't actually done it yet but I am very close.  I actually said to B last night (and I quote) "We need to get the house in order this weekend so I can ring a cleaner on Monday" and he agreed. I don't know what was more disturbing that we have already started cleaning for the cleaner and we haven't even got one!! or that we have actually succumbed to needing a cleaner at all. 

I know I said earlier that it is unfair of me to blame the YAMS for the state of the house but this is different.  I am definitely blaming them for the moral degradation of me and their father. A cleaner!!-yikes?? such a long way from my commie, Marx studying days of Uni, and my Dr Spock mentality of child rearing. A cleaner!!


There is still hope- I haven't actually done it yet but I am very,very close!!!

5 comments:

  1. I too have a cleaner! Actually not at the moment because we're squatting in the studio, but I have had one before and I'm unashamed to say that I will have one again. n fact, I've been a cleaner myself and I don't think it's demeaning... Amanda, our cleaner, is almost part of the family and is coming over for daughter's birthday party tomorrow. Frankly she makes more money than I do and I have had fantasies of resurrecting my previous career to fund the art. So anyway, don't feel guilty, just find someone you're comfortable with. Sara x

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  2. Thanx Sara. I hope my post doesn't sound like think being a cleaner is demeaning. I too have been a cleaner. What I have a problem with is creating so much chaos and waste that I actually need a cleaner.I have always found the idea of it over indulgent. But I am getting used to it.

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  3. I'm tempted to go 'snap' again ida.... but that would be lazy - I'm still trying to get myself properly into the studio... to work on the BOA project (I WILL get there sometime soon...I hope ) and have faniciful dreams of having someone (anyone) come to clear a pathway into my grotsville residence (just dreams I'm afraid)

    hey dear - with the hols fast disappearing - we should make time for a catch up of sorts... gate is (usually) always open - love to see you (if you can cope with piles of threatening junk)

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  4. thanks Ronnie, will try to make it up your way in the next week. likewise if you head to tathra please drop in.

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  5. Oh, get the cleaner, Ida, and don't feel guilty. I'd love to do the same except that I still have the floor covered with unpacked boxes and now children's toys and I can't bear the effort entailed in cleaning up for the cleaner. The only real reason I clean (read vacuum) is to remove the millions of dead ants and to try to give the funnelwebs a feeling that they are unwanted. Not that they take much notice - there's obviously no funnelweb grapevine out there so still they come...

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