Sunday, December 04, 2005

The Joys of Housekeeping

I hate cleaning house! I think it's because I live in a small house with a few other people who share my distaste for domestic chores. I try not to be truly nasty, but this house hasn't been cleaned in an unforgivable while. I spent most of my day cleaning and scrubbing messes which were, for the most part, not mine or my offspring's.

Perhaps I should try to untangle my living situation in order to explain things. I'll do my best to make it brief: My sister and I have lived together for almost two years, as roommates. About four months ago, finances got disastrous as a result of my sister's pregnancy (and subsequent unemployment) combined with my own struggle to find a work at home arrangement that could pay my bills. (I finally did with NiteFlirt, but about six weeks too late.) Bills were piling up and the creditors were suddenly threatening to make our lives extremely... rustic. You get the idea.

In the nick of time, our mother made us one of those offers we wanted to refuse, but couldn't. We were welcome to move into this dilapidated, dank, frightening and possibly haunted (I'm not kidding.) house. While vacant, it had been used as a sort of storage shed for all the crap none of the family packrats (mostly my mother) could throw away. And it gets worse...

Some crackheads broke in and ransacked everything with impressive thoroughness. They apparently stayed a few days and made a disgusting mess. This house was, without exaggeration, the vilest and most revolting place I'd ever seen. The deal was: clean it out, get the utilities turned on, and we can live here rent free. "Free rent" floated through mine and my sister's minds as we rolled up our sleeves and set to hauling, cringing, scrubbing, gagging, and swearing like sailors. After about two full days, the place became inhabitable if not quite homey.

Now that it's liveable, it's a nightmare to keep clean and there are numerous repairs needed. I'm fairly handy with a hammer, but there are wiring and plumbing issues that I refuse to attempt. Needless to say, there's some debate over who should have to pay the professionals. It's maddening, and I'm serioiusly considering other living arrangements. I'll be spending a lot of time on the phone lines all of December and January. By Febuary I'd like to be in a two bedroom apartment or house -- just my doodle and me. I'll just leave this shithole a lot nicer than I found it and move on with my life, provided I don't manage to fuck it up.

It's raining now, which I enjoy. It always makes me grateful to have a roof over my head, no matter what state it's in. I've got some excellent music playing on the computer, I'm warm, and I'm not especially hungry. That puts me better off than half the world. I'm away now, to enjoy my comfortable poverty and count my meager blessings.

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