Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Vacuum

Lynilu gave me a great idea for a story, but before I tell the story I need to share something with you that happened tonight. I was watching The Golden Girls and started laughing. Ben was right next to me and he looked at me like, "What in the world are you doing?" Yea, I think it's been a while since I have truly laughed. I realized tonight how much the animals were affected by my sadness and it makes me so sad for them. But things are looking up and I am feeling wonderful. Just ask Lynilu....she seems to be the target of my horrible sense of humor lately. Thankfully she is a good sport about it. At least I hope so.

In Lynilu's comment she said I should share the story about my privilaged upbringing. So here goes:

I was a spoiled brat. Yes it's true, I was spoiled and a brat. My Father was (he is now retired) a Coorporate Attorney and this allowed me to have a lot of things and never worry about money. I feel I am lucky because I never wanted for anything, but I think that also hurt me in a lot of ways. My Mom was a stay at home Mom until I was in Middle School and even then she only worked part time while I was in school. It wasn't until I was in high school that she went back to work full-time.

For some reason my Mom did not teach me to be domestic. She never taught me how to cook or do any cleaning. I think part of the whole cleaning thing is; we had someone come in every week to clean the house. So I was never taught how to scrub a toilet, bathtub..etc. It is interesting because when I was in middle school my parents did teach me how to do my laundry and I was responisble for it.

Well, when I was about 10 my parents were having people over and my Mom asked me to vacuum the living room. I seriously think this was the first time I used the vacuum because it was very aparent that I had no idea what I was doing. Our carpet was kind of thick and I turned on the vacuum and drove it like a car. I made all kinds of circles and because the carpet was thick you could see exactly where I had been in the living room. When my Mom came back she freaked and said, "what have you done?"

When I got married and moved out I had no idea what I was doing. I was a horrible housekeeper and you could see that just from walking into the apartment. One day I was out with some ladies from church and we decided to stop at the apartment. I really didn't think anything about it until they all walked in. I wouldn't say they looked shocked, but I finally realized what the place looked like, As soon as they left I spent rest of the day cleaning the apartment. I decided right then and there that when I leave the house my house needs to be clean because you never know who will be walking into your house.

So, that is my story about the vacuum. Hey, my childhood may not have been perfect, but I have some really good stories because of it.

6 comments:

One Messed Up Chick said...

thank you for sharing your stories :)

Lynilu said...

I love that story! Thanks for telling it!

I'm the target of your horrible sense of humor??? Oh, I didn't notice, I guess. :D I must say, however, that it is good to have you laughing and joking around again!

I have a question that your post brings up. Did your mom teach you to cook before you got married? Or did you guys eat fast food all the time? I think I know the answer, but ..... I'll bet you made some interesting meals for the ex!!! LOL!

:D

Anonymous said...

You know, I 'get' this totally. Although I must say, I have/had some issues that make/made house cleaning ummm, difficult for me. I do my best but my husband still has times when he says it's not good enough. I finally got to the space in my life where I figured if people come over and don't like the way my house looks, they are not here for the right reason.

Bella said...

My parents taught us how to clean. I hate it. Don't look too closely at things, you will see the dust. Oh well. I figure there are other things to do than dust. Hence, my need to find a new cleaning person.

Minnesota Nice said...

Funny, I wasn't raised to be domestic either. Maybe that's why when I 'discovered' cooking and cleaning I found it so fun and exciting, because I'd never tried before??

Monogram Queen said...

I love hearing stories... I didn't know how to clean until I got married too and now i'm not exactly Martha Stewart ha!