Sparkling Clean

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This is a good-bye card for employees to sign for a man who was laid off a few months ago. He's a veteran so I hope he enjoys the red, white & blue theme.

I don't know the particulars but when he was laid off, it was decided he could stay on until the end of May and we'd see if sales improved and he could stay. I guess? At first I thought that was good financially for him but bad in a mindset kind of way, you know? Should I look for job or not? That seems tortuous to me. He's 63 but he wasn't sure if he could afford to retire. This "stay of execution" has given him time to get his affairs in order and now he is retiring! He's totally at peace with the decision and is very excited about retirement. I'm very happy for him that it all worked out - and insanely jealous.

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I hired a house cleaning service last week and yesterday was her first day. She'll come every 2 weeks. We tried this once before, having a woman come once/month, mainly because I was too cheap to have her come more often and honestly, I still struggled with my thinking, "I should be doing this myself, working harder, trying harder, I should be able to do it all." Even though I knew intellectually that was stupid thinking, I still felt very conflicted about it. In the interest of full disclosure, Simon and Steve do stuff too but, for all my strong thoughts of equality and men/women roles, etc. I found myself still feeling the burden of the traditional "housewife" role. I think that's really weird of me. Really weird.

This time around? I'm totally at peace with it - in fact I'm ecstatic about it. In the time that's elapsed since our last hiring of a house cleaner, I've embraced the fact that I don't like cleaning. At all. Love to declutter, organize, purge. Hate to clean. I've learned, from women at work, that there are some people who enjoy cleaning. Foreign concept, but whatever.

This way, we're stimulating the economy and Kerri and I both get to do work we enjoy. This isn't a luxury, it's a necessity if I want Pine Tree Designs to continue to grow. I put around 30 hours/week into PTD, on top of a full-time job. Not that I'm justifying or anything. Okay, maybe a little, because really, it is a luxury and I'm extremely grateful.

The house is so clean, poor Reggi wouldn't even sit in her favorite recliner, Simon told me. Guess it didn't smell like her anymore! Simon had to coax her back into "her chair". That cracks me up. I had left a dog treat for Kerri to feed Reggi when she got here in order to make friends with her faster. She said Reggi never barked or even came to the door. Reggi turned her head and glanced at her when she arrived but that's it. Reggi had met Kerri last week, but still, I think Reggi was hip to why Kerri was there and she didn't want to discourage her in any way. :-)

Kerri says next time she'll work on the walls, baseboards and the tops of the doors. Huh? Those things are supposed to be cleaned?? Who knew? I still can't get over the blinding sparkliness of the chrome in the shower this morning.

It's all good.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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