Next to Godliness

I cleaned today, the kind where you rearrange and do drawers and wash curtains.  We've lived here 51 weeks, and it's about time.  One time Kimberly told me she didn't like cleaning and I said well who does?  And she shot back:  You do. 

I laughed.  I told her no one likes to clean.  People just prefer cleaning to living on an episode of hoarders.  They like the results.  It's like dental surgery.  Nobody wants it, but it's better than living with pain and losing your teeth.

I kind of lied.  I don't mind cleaning.  I just sometimes mind that I'm the only one who does much of it or that I have too much to do between that and other things.  But doing it clears my mind.  I also like driving, alone, with the radio.  I like to have time to think.

I scrubbed shower curtain liners today.  Carly said for $6.00 we could just buy new ones and not scrub.  Welcome to disposable society.  I'm guilty myself.  On episodes of Andy Griffith you can sometimes see Emitt's Repair Shop window or even see someone inside with a toaster or fan.  I recycle appliances, but I don't fix them very often.

Carly told me as I was ironing a new comforter (75% off at Target, pictures to be posted next week after I find curtains) that ironing is a lost art.  I remember my grandmother soaking stuff in starch and ironing with an appliance she sat on the stove to get hot.  She also had a 1962 Maytag on the back porch with two rollers on it and a crank although it would also work on electricity.  She always cautioned me to keep my fingers clear of the rollers.  Sometimes though she would let me slide Barbie clothes through there.  They came out like little pancakes of calico and gingham. 

I like to iron.  I like to press.  I worked in a laundromat before the girls were born and I could operate six presses at once doing blue jeans.  What I don't like is for anyone to expect me to do those things and not be capable of other skills.  Once my sister-in-law tried to get me to change a flat on my car so we could go shopping when I was still married.  I said oh Girl, are you kidding?  If I had changed that flat, I'd have changed every other flat after that.  And it may be sad that I feel that way about men, but I do.

One night the girls were watching some matchmaker show, and the matchmaker was telling a girl not to cook on the first date, that the first date sets the precedent for the entire relationship.  And if you cook on the first date, he will expect to be served every day henceforth.

I like that girl.  Patti is her name and she also has a lot of rules that you cannot have sex for a long long time (well, she is worldly after all) and you can only have two drinks on the first meeting and you can't go on a first date anywhere you have to wear a bikini or be casual, and the man has to plan the first date, all the details.

In the animal kingdom, the females of the species generally don't do any work in courtship.  The male peacock sports his plumage for the peahen.  The deer and rams butt antlers and horns to be first for the privilege of mating.  I think this is Satan's best tactic, to make women compete with each other for male attention and to run around skimpily clad so men will know they can be satisfied by them.  The thing is, that only satisfies one thing. 

So, the upstairs is spotless and there is no laundry.  The downstairs, well I did the fridge and cooked.  There were bananas almost overripe so I did banana bread, and I made a nice chicken and rice meal.  After Wednesday, I am finished with school for the summer except grading final portfolios - and only 20 of them unlike the first session where I had 31 students.  A lot less work. 

And, I think the girls can finish down there.  Just the living room, kitchen/dining and a half bath.  That's a lot easier than I had it with my mother.  I'm going to study my WT.  Tomorrow I'm wearing green.  It's a good feeling to see clean for all my hard work.  Good night, Sisters.