Well today’s the last day before my mom gets here so if I’m MIA for awhile, thats the reason why. I’ll be spasticly cleaning for a few more hours before I decide that I’ve done enough for now. I mean- its my mom and she’s known me since the day I was born and known too that I’m anything but a neat freak. Even so I feel the need to get rid of the dust bunnies the size of small dogs and clean the shower and such. So if I don’t make comments, I’m not gone, just busy.
Hugs!
One More Day April 17, 2009
Oh my aching back!!! August 26, 2008
Well I kept myself good and busy the first half of yesterday playing on the internet. The second half I cleaned up from the aftermath of a typical Sisk residence weekend- we had all the kids over and well it gets a bit messy. Actually, its still a bit messy, but the dishes are all done and thats the most important part. Then I got ambitious. Don’t ask me why, because now I half wish I hadn’t, but at the time it seemed like a good idea. See, for those of you who may remember my conflict over whether or not to buy that beautiful old sewing machine and cabinet, there was some back story that I forgot at the time. I’ve had a beautiful old cabinet sitting in th basement for quite some time that needed a new paint job and some serious cosmetic surgery. Well on Sunday the weather was gorgeous here and so I finally decided to sand it all down to get ready for painting. Unfortunately I don’t have any before pictures, but thats life. Anyway, it got too late for me to finish it on Sunday because I made a very delicious stir fry for dinner and that takes time. So yesterday I decided “What the heck- lets get it finished.” Well sanding is one thing, but spray painting for the primer and then painting it half bent over is something completely different. I almost gave up several times but I finally perservered. We had some very light blue almost white paint left over from some projects for the family reunion so the total cost so far has been 3 bucks. I was given the table by my stepmom.
Well by the time I was done with all the painting, I was a bit sore, hot, and thirsty but I took a nice hot shower and went on my merry way. Jarell and I went to pick up a big woodstove from my dad’s house last night and I was fine through that altho maybe sitting on the floor of the porch for an hour was a bad idea. But it wasn’t until I tried to get off the couch last night to go to bed that I realized the mistake I had made- I could barely move. I hobbled over to the tv 1 step at a time and to go about 6 feet took me a full minute. Then I had to hobble to the other living room to feed the fish their bed time snack and back to the bedroom where I took a Tylenol PM and clambered into bed to wait for it to kick in. Oh lord that was rough. This morning I still haven’t figured out how to sit comfortably quite right so its been interesting. And did I take any pictures of the silly thing to justify all of this pain? Well… yes finally just now I did, but the computer won’t let me attach them so maybe later. Now I think I’ll head off to do something respectable with my day that doesn’t require any hand strength because at this point and time I can barely grip anything. My hands are still all screwy from trying to spray paint all that crap.
Where did the time go August 19, 2008
Well I spent the weekend being lazy. Or half of it anyway. I got a call Friday morning from my dad to tell me that my grandparents were here visiting from Michigan. They are in their 80’s so I always worry about these trips they make, but I was glad to get a chance to see them since the likelihood of us getting to go up there is slim to nil right now. Anyway so later that evening after dealing with the little diva all day and having the mother of all headaches I got a call from my little brother who was trying to be go between without asking my grandma what they wanted to do until I finally snapped at him and he gave the phone to her.
Grandma wanted to get together and I suggested our house as the preferred point of rendezvous because I knew my dad’s house was unlikely to be up to visitors. She said that would be fine and we talked a bit more before saying goodnight. Then I panicked a bit. Our house is usually fairly clean by my standards and imaculate compared to some, but all of a sudden I remembered that our bathroom was a bit on the grungy side and the guest bath is used primarily by teenagers and mostly boys at that. This may sound strange, but since I don’t use that bathroom, and its family who does, I believe they should maintain it. I told my husband that if we were going to be the restroom source for all the guys up at the shop, there was no way I was cleaning up after them. So they do it themselves but it doesn’t happen very often and so it can be a bit scary at times. How can I live with it like that you might ask? Well its either that or spend my days cleaning bathrooms and I haven’t quite gotten past my aversion to cleaning that part of the house.
Well I was remembering how frightening these bathrooms in our house can sometimes be and I knew that come morning I’d have to go on the cleaning offensive if I was going to feel comfortable having my grandma over. She is old fashioned and her idea of a mess is carpets that haven’t been vacuumed in 2 weeks. Sadly my stepmom isn’t much of a housekeeper anymore due to her long hours at work and long commute home so when I was younger and still living at home I always dreaded visits at home from my grandparents because of the mess and knowing they were coming here started all sorts of flashbacks.
I had washed all the dishes and we put J12 to work cleaning up his mess and the guest bathroom and started to tackle our bathroom the next morning when I had an epiphany. My grandma never thought any woman my dad was married to was good enough for him. If I remember correctly, my mom wasn’t good enough until she was gone and my stepmom is only starting to get kind remarks behind her back after all these years. Early on my grandma made some rather disparaging remarks about my stepmom’s ancestry (she’s part blackfoot) and its been all downhill from there so of course her housekeeping skills would be a prime attack point. Since my mom always kept the house fairly clean, my grandma could insinuate that my mom never would have let the house get that messy. (In all fairness, its true, but not something that should be mentioned in polite conversation) Anyway back to the epiphany. I realized that I am not a daughter in law, I am a grand daughter and therefore a coveted and much loved member of the family. In our family, all three grand daughters are the oldest in their families and nobody -girls or boys- has ever disagreed that we’re the favorites. So I guit messing with trying to get everything straight and just worked on getting rid of the things that you don’t want family to see. We don’t want to dash their hopes for more great grandchildren by letting them see all the empty condom wrappers or for that matter even think about them knowing anything about our sex lives. Its just not right.
As it turned out, the get together was a huge success. I really enjoy getting to know my grandparents as an adult because there is so much to learn from them. The bathrooms that I was so worried about never got used, and after a nice long visit, they headed on back to their hotel. Whew! That was a close one. But I don’t think I will ever worry so much about them or other similar family members visiting again because there are many who think I can do no wrong. Hooray for family members who’ve given up on impartiality!
After all that, Sunday was spent being lazy for the most part. We did go get the younger J’s and I got some more gravestone pictures. Then yesterday I went and mailed off Dana’s package finally and did some portaits of J14
Altered faux vintage picture
again at the graveyard. Not sure where I’m going with this, but its cheap entertainment. And now this is getting long and I have several other things I should be doing right now so I shall let you all go.
Au revoir!
Oh! You can check out my flickr account for some more pictures including the ones of the semi finished altered book I mentioned a while back.
Adventures in Housekeeping or Why I leave a tip when I stay at a hotel August 13, 2008
I was cleaning our shower today, a task I loathe above most others because my husband has a job that he comes home from covered in various dirts and greases almost every day and I was thinking about how much I hate cleaning bathrooms. I used to say I’d rather clean a bathroom than a dish, but that changed after I worked for a Hyatt hotel. Not just any Hyatt, but the Hyatt Vineyard Creek in Santa Rosa, CA.
I thought the job would be great when I first took it. It was good pay (by my Missouri standards) and the hours were somewhat flexible in that once I was done with my rooms, I could leave if I so chose. I started off training and realized that I was one of 3 people on the cleaning staff who spoke fluent English and one of only 2 who spoke it as a first language. This didn’t bother me because the gals I worked with were very sweet and I knew just enough Spanish to get by. The supervisors were another story. They called me a kid (and I was) and condescended to me to my face and were downright rude behind my back. They spoke no Spanish, but made up for it by speaking REALLY loud to the other workers because that makes it easier to understand. Kinda like talking to old people. Or not….
I got into a routine and cleaned most rooms in less than 20 minutes, which was quite an accomplishment considering the size of the rooms and the mess made by the rich people who stayed in them. We were supposed to do 16 rooms a day and get time and a half for every room extra beyond that, but I was regularly given 19 or 20 rooms and no extra pay. Some days I would get to come in late and do the afternoon housekeeping around the grounds because I spoke English and by then the guests were up and around and asking questions. The hotel didn’t want the white bread clientèle to be confused or offended by the non-English speaking staff so thats where I came in. I’d clean the lobby, the offices, and the sweep the courtyard, walkways etc. It was easier than the rooms and a bit more social which was nice, but it didn’t last long, because the other white girl quit without notice and I had to take over her work.
I’d had just about enough after being there for a month when I cleaned one room where a couple had stayed for 5 days. They left the room a disaster with empty food cartons and other junk even tho it had just been cleaned the day before by yours truly. It took me a good 40 minutes to get through it all and I freaked out a bit when I found the empty condom wrappers (sans rubbers thank god), the pamphlets on being a gay male living with aids, and the booklets on all the gay clubs in San Francisco. I immediately put on two extra pairs of gloves and was very careful from there on out.
The final straw came when I was told I would have vacation for a week when Jarell came to visit me for the first time in 6 months. They never wrote it down, but regularly talked to me about it so I wasn’t worried until the schedule went up for the week I was supposed to have off. Not only did they not give me the vacation, but I was scheduled to work 9 days in a row. I was upset but calmly asked them about it. They said another housekeeper had quit without notice and two other women had asked at the last minute to go visit family. I was pissed, but kept quiet.
The next day when Jarell was scheduled to fly in, I called in sick. And until 3 weeks later when I went to pick up my last check, I never went back. Childish? Maybe. Justified? Hell yes! I was making a whopping 8 dollars an hour at a horrendous job where they treated the employees in the housekeeping section like scum.
The moral of the story: Be kind to your housekeeping staff when you stay at a hotel. They don’t see much of that outrageous fee that you pay to the hotel, and they generally aren’t treated that well. Besides, if you’re staying more than one night, you really want your room to be clean and safe, don’t you?
