On any given Saturday morning I could be found washing the windows, both inside and out, or organizing every dresser drawer in every room. There were no socks in our house without a mate. My least favorite was washing her two generation collection of crystal from all three of her china cabinets. As a kid I couldn’t understand the need for ten different sets of wine glasses. Wine, is wine is wine. I know better now.
I had my doubts that she wanted to visit just because. In my naiveté I thought if she was looking this settled, happy and chatting non-stop l might be spared the deep clean which usually accompanies her visits. Normally it involves me scrubbing bathroom base boards, vacuuming the deepest, darkest corners, tooth brushing the space between the tiles in the bathrooms or worse, entering my teen daughter’s bedroom. Or jumping up every three seconds to locate the case of Comet she packed or the barrel of Clorox she had delivered. I am young and still believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy and held out for something shiny, not a toilet brush.
In the olden days, back when I had my first place, I picked up and straightened out before she visited, later I spent a week preparing. Later still I hired cleaning crews to come in before her arrival. All proved futile. We still clean every nook, every cranny, she complains about my dust collectors, all the little things acquired over the years and travels. She asked me on day two why I had blue plates everywhere, to which I replied, “those are rare pieces of Spode, don’t touch them.” They survived the dishwasher, who knew.
I returned her to the airport in a different Chico’s matching ensemble, refreshed. Whatever it was she had to work out is resolved now. My house is without grime, there are no cobwebs in the corners, the sixty-year-old cast iron tub is sporting a Hollywood starlet’s bleached white smile and I can actually see my daughter sitting on her bed and don’t have to look around the piles.
I love you Mom, despite appearances, my dreams of a new identify, and the number of dust bunny communes you sucked up this week.
