Day 14250

OK, I got lazy and didn't log on and post this one last night, but here it is anyway...complete with an edited date & time to make it look like I posted this last night!

Why is it that whenever friends or family stop by unannounced, my place looks like a disaster? I clean regularly, but maybe I am letting too much time pass between cleanings! I work 5-6 days a week and usually do a thorough cleaning every other week. In between, I load/unload dishwashers, throw away trash and junk mail, do laundry, and wipe counters. You would think that would be plenty. Apparently not.

Today, some friends from Connecticut (Will, Lisa, and Paisley) surprised me with a visit. They were welcomed to stacks of junk mail in the living room, dishes on the kitchen counters, laundry in a pile in my bedroom, and a dirty bathroom. OK, so I admit that it was messy in here and time for a thorough cleaning. But why did they pick this weekend to visit? Damn, was it embarrassing. They were really polite and pretended not to notice.

We had a nice, but short visit. The adults (that includes me) caught up with each other, while a 3-year old, Paisley "went to work" handing us little tidbits of stuff as gifts. (I got keys!) It was very cute. Apparently, when Will goes to work in the morning, Paisley goes to work at her desk in a corner, where she pretends to do some sort of business, which I gather includes quite a lot of drawing. Lisa said Paisley does this for almost 2 hours at a time, which gives Lisa some time to read on-line newspapers most mornings. I suspect there are a lot of jealous people out there reading this right now!

Anyway, while I was cleaning up the place, it hit me that maybe they weren't pretending not to notice what I felt was a messy place. Afterall, they have a 3-year old! Everyone else I know with young children, live in places that look like a tornado just went through. They just are too tired to continuously keep up with the messes their kids make and the kids just haven't matured enough to pick up after themselves. Nevertheless, it sure was nice to get the place straightened up after they left.

Someday, I do want kids. This must mean that I will want the mess as well. Yikes! It makes me tired just thinking about it. Reminds me of years ago, when I babysat for my twin nieces, who were 4 at the time. I literally crawled out of my brother's house and into my car. I was exhausted after only 1 day! They had been doing it for more than 4 years straight at that point! While driving home, I remember trying to figure out how they ever survived for so long.

Anyway, given my age, it is very likely that I will end up with someone who already has had children. Hopefully, if that is the case, they have started to clean up after themselves! Or, we could adopt a child older than 3 years old, so most of the hard work would have already been done! Look at the title to this post. That's how many days old I am. I don't think I could keep up with an infant or toddler at this point, when it wore me out when I was 20 years old!

Well, I am tired. Here's to all the tired parents! You have my sympathy. Seriously.