I really need to write a book. Oh wait, I blog. Isn't that the same?
Yesterday I had to take my dad to the hospital to get his stint removed. What a long day it ended up being. Once the procedure started (after a few hour delay) it went rather quickly. Being a smoker, we were banished to off hospital campus. Had to cross a busy six lane divided highway (three lanes each direction, with a median in the middle), to the center median to smoke. Got to really take a good look at some of the old buildings in the area. Beautiful architecture!! Met some crazy people, too. And I do mean crazy. Ya, crazy as I am, they made me look like a normal well adjusted person. Gotta love what you see downtown! LOL.
Got home to find that DIL hadn't done much. Dishes were in the sink, so much for the CAYG (clean as you go) talk we had the other day. "Mom, I'll get them. Promise." Ummmm, okay. But that's only part of my complaints. Doesn't she understand it's easy to clean them before crap cakes on 'em? No having to scrape and soak. Doih. And this morning her dishes still sit there. Not the way I'd want to start my day. Nope, not the way I want my day to start ... having to look at someones dirty dishes still waiting from the night before. I'm thinking I may have to smack her upside the head with the dirty skillet she left on the stove overnight.
So, I've been doing some genealogy research for a cousin of mine and her husband that I'll call Aunt or Uncle "Normal". Found out some real neat stuff ... ship captains, shipwrecks ... high sea adventures - okay more like Great Lakes adventures, but still very dangerous and often tragic stories. Some of my knowledge of early shipwrecks has come in handy already. I'm going to have to take a trip to my favorite town of Port Huron to research some of these things further!
Knowing that I have to take a day trip, Aunt Normal called to ask my address. She's sending me a check to cover gas and meals. Cool, every little bit helps. What's hysterical about this whole thing is that after I graduated they sent me a nice card, but no check. I wasn't upset, but boy was my mom peeved! "All the checks I've sent their two kids through the years, she could have returned the favor." Geesh Mom ... give it a rest. Please. And Mom's a bit upset I've spent hours researching their relatives. I look at it this way ... we're family. So they didn't send a graduation gift. Big freaking deal. Gotta love those family fights, especially between two elderly cousins ... talk about the ties that bind and gag! LOL.
Aunt Normal also mentioned that they both think I have a real knack for this stuff. She suggested I might even want to do this for pay. Good idea! Especially since every other job offer I've had has fallen through. Anyway ... researching what it'd take to become a certified genealogy researcher will involve MORE classes, assembling a portfolio of "case studies" and presenting them before a panel of judges to see if I qualify for a five year certificate. Won't happen overnight, obviously,but I'm looking into pursuing this. I love uncovering family histories. A "picture" of what our ancestors, the common "joe" or "jane", did to survive on a day to day basis really intrigues me.
So, it's food for thought.
In the meantime, between cleaning and organizing a la Fly Lady I'm spending my weekend going over shipwreck records. See what I can find out about three different shipwrecks captained by three of their ancestors. None of which survived, by the way.
Oh, and I just may end up smacking a certain DIL upside the head if these dishes aren't done before she leaves for work today.
I say you waltz in their room, lay down a plastic bag, waltz out, and then waltz back in carrying any dirty dishes that were left overnight and deposit them there. Tell her that it's a compromise of her waiting to do them and you not wanting to see a pile of dirty dishes....and that, btw, if the room should get smelly or buggy as a result it will be her responsibility to tend to that, too.
ReplyDeleteOkay...so maybe it wouldn't work. But it's fun to imagine, isn't it????
That is a nice dream! However ... it'd start a fight to end all fights, I'm sure. And we know what a hostile environment breeds. Contempt, resistance and disrespect. Things I want not to cross my threshold.
ReplyDeleteAs I was just signing off multiply she rolled out of bed (noonish), grumbling it was too early (oy), and half asleep set to scrubbing out the skillet with the steel wool pads I had just bought. Um, I have a use for those, and she uses ONE and immediately throws it away? Three gone in a box that I haven't had in the house for two days. Oy. But, the dishes got done, minus a spoon that I had used. Yup, seems she's back to the "not mine" shit. She spends more time sorting "mine" and "not mine" than it would take to wash the whole flipping load.
Geesh, when I'm washing dishes I just wash whatever is in the dishtub.
Funny thing with this "not mine" mentality she has. She was just turned down for a promotion, AND one of the managers accused her in the same day as "you only do what you have to do and no more". Gee, that 'not me' comes back to bite her in the ass.
So, I washed the freaking spoon. Looked at it and thought about how bad she must be at work if she can't handle one extra little spoon.
And no, I am not going to play the "not mine" game, as tempting as it is. That's how the house got in such a state the last time they lived here. Ain't gonna happen again. Nope, Drill Sgt Mom is barking orders left and right ... maybe eventually they'll actually sink in!
In one of my high school classrooms, there was a poster that said, "If you do exactly as you're told-no more and no less, we wouldn't change you for the world. We wouldn't hire you either."
ReplyDeleteExactly!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!
ReplyDelete