Dust Bunnies and Old Friends

I had meant to go to the city today and get my hair cut since I have put off doing so for three weeks. Yesterday, I called to change the appointment to next week because we have friends coming from Oregon tomorrow and they’ll be here a few days. Though they don’t plan to stay with us, I did want to have the house well stocked with food and a fairly good grasp on some meals to whip up with little fuss. And a glance around told me that some general cleaning was long overdue.

The day promised to be a busy one with cleaning house, bathing dogs and going to the market. I bathed Ralph and Chelsea early on and took Chelsea Mai to be clipped. The rest of the items on my ‘to-do’ list are still staring me in the face. Floors are not done, furniture is not dusted, some laundry is done and some is folded, but some is not. I haven’t quite made it to the market yet though I do keep adding to the list. I’ve decided to have pork roast tomorrow night when they arrive and I will need to marianade that overnight, so going to the market is a must.

Well, I can run the sweeper in the morning and give the furniture a hit and a lick with the feather duster. After all, I tell myself, they’re coming to see us and not to inspect the house. There’s no reason for my lack of accomplishment other than I seem to spend all of my time daydreaming and getting sidetracked. I have perfected to an art the ability to stay very very busy and accomplish nothing. I have never understood people who get bored being by themselves as I can occupy myself for hours on end without ever leaving the perimeters of my mind. I really think I must fascinate myself. Add to that my discovery of Open Diary and I may never get anything accomplished again.

I began to clean the family room and ended up rearranging plants. One needs transplanting, so went to the garage to look for a planter. Saw the slug bait out there and remembered I needed to put some around my newly planted flowering kale. While on the deck doing that, I spied my cacti and knew that must come in since we are in threat of frost this week-end. Well, the kale is baited, but now there are plants all over the family room, some in my bedroom and a couple in the hall. The family room is still not cleaned.

Remembered that needed I to cook for Ralph and Chelsea today, so put their chicken on to poach and it’s now waiting for the addition of brown rice and carrots. Well, I have no carrots, so that’ll have to wait until I return from the market.

I went into the laundry room to put one load of clothes in the dryer and begin another in the wash, spied the shelves above the washer and rearranged those. Laundry…still not done. Also looked with disparage at the stack of ironing I meant to do. Not today.

I pulled the sheets off the guest bed so that I could launder them and got hung up in there going through an old box of memorabilia. Reading old letters from fifteen years ago, looking at old birthday cards. Found CC’s old bankie from when he was a baby. It’s now in shreds and whoever in the world will ever want it and what would they do with it…don’t know, but I can’t throw it away.

My trip into my bedroom to change the bed ended with a long perusal of the stacks of books in there and sorting them by ‘read’ and ‘not read’ and then rearranging them on my sagging bookshelves. Bed still not changed.

George will be home in a little over an hour. I’m off to the market now and then home to make the marianade and get the meat going. Thank God for leftovers – that’s what’s for dinner and maybe George will help me clean. I have no earthly idea how I ever held down a fulltime job, raised two sons, cooked and cleaned and took college courses. My house was clean then. Go figure.

But tomorrow when our friends arrive we won’t care whether the house is shining or not. We’ll be talking non-stop, catching up with each other as we share a glass of good wine. There’s be old memories to bring out and dust off as we remind one another of times gone by – maybe with just a bit of embellishment. Yes, it will be an easy journey back into our old familiar roles when the four of us are together once again. We’ll move toward the kitchen as I begin to prepare dinner and George will set the table. We’ll sit around the table just like we used to on so many nights so many years ago.

As the shadows grow longer and the candles burn lower we’ll make our plans for Saturday and whether we want to ferry over to the city for lunch or just make it a lazy day over here on this side. We’ll plan what to barbeque on Sunday when the whole family will be here for the day. Perhaps if the weather’s nice the guys can get in a game of golf. If the weather’s accommodating, the girls can take little A, almost two now, to the park for a brisk walk and good natured seagull chasing!

Yes, it promises to be a wonderful week-end…who cares about dusting???