DELVING BETWEEN THE TOES OF LIFE....I AM TOEJAM


2014-01-20 - 11:00 p.m.

Well, I had another unsuccessful day of cleaning around here. I have one more day to atone for this otherwise I will be starting out my work week YET AGAIN with a trashed, disgusting house. Putting it off for one week is one thing but putting it off for two weeks just can't happen. The reality of my current life is that I actually spend at least three hours a day cleaning. A DAY. And that's just maintenance cleaning. Once a week I do things like wash all the couch covers and blankets and rugs and curtains and scrub floors. Having this many animals in a house is quite a chore. Quite a chore my friends. Anyway, last week I didn't quite manage to get as much done as I like to get done. I still had piles of laundry to do and the kitchen got rather trashed this week but I knew it was just a matter of days I had to get through and then it would be Monday and I could clean all day! But no. When I woke up this morning and started my first load of wash the washing machine finally died. So I couldn't get much done today. Eric got home around four thirty with an appliance dolly and we moved a washing machine we've had sitting in our garage for TWO YEARS into the house. It was a lot of work. And we weren't even sure it was going to work. I mean, it worked two years ago when we stashed it in the garage (one of Eric's colleagues who moved overseas traded it to us in exchange for our European appliances that we had). So after much effort (good lord!) we got the thing plugged in and at first it seemed to be working but then it didn't drain or spin. It was heartbreaking. Especially when I realized that I would HAVE to go to the laundry mat and ever since I read about how much fecal matter is in wash water I am not thrilled (like I used to be, I used to really love the laundry mat) about going to the laundry mat. Anyway, it occurred to me that maybe there was water in the drain pump line that had frozen being in the garage and if we just waited maybe it would thaw and everything would be good. Eric shook his head and went downstairs to start shopping for a new washer. I waited about an hour and turned the washer back on and YES! It worked! I'm on my third load already. Whew. So yes, tomorrow I shall get this house clean.

I've been trying to really focus on taking better care of myself. Eric bought us an elliptical machine for Christmas, a really nice one. I'm trying to get back into the habit of taking half an hour at least out of my day and getting on the machine. I used to really enjoy it in Spain. I looked forward to it almost every day. Mostly because I liked the TV show I watched every day while I did it but still...it was a good thing. I'm trying to find a regular TV show to watch here every day. Today I tried the Ellen show. It's the first time I've ever watched the Ellen show and MERYL STREEP was her guest. What luck! I mostly managed to stay on the machine through the whole show. I did jump off a couple times during commercials but I did crunches and bicep curls, I just needed to do something besides the elliptical. Tomorrow I will try to find a different show. Even if I thought the Ellen show was entertaining enough to keep my attention the time slot doesn't work for me. I need something that starts at one. The show I used to watch in Spain was Globe Trekkers or something like that. I loved it.

Yesterday I had a massage and a facial. I tried this new place that is in the same center as the restaurant where I work. I tried it because if you become a member there you can go in every day and have a fifteen minute session on this massage water bed thing they have. I thought that would be a nice thing to do before work every day. So, I had a coupon for a free massage and a coupon for an introductory rate facial. All in all it was fine. The facial sucked, of course. I can't believe these people get paid to wash my face. It's so ridiculous. I came home and exfoliated my skin and put some mask on and gave myself my own BETTER facial for free. The massage was also just OK. I realize that both my normal facial lady and massage lady are experts, they are both the top of their professions. But going to either of them is pretty inconvenient. To go to my facial lady I have to drive two hours to Kalamazoo and two hours back. And my massage lady is pretty hard to get into. I usually have to book her a month in advance. And, neither of them work on Sunday (good for them) but that's really the day that works best for me. So I joined this place. I will never get a facial there but now for $54 a month I get a one hour massage and unlimited use of that massage bed. And every six months I get an extra half hour added to my massage. It will be a good supplement. It's thirty dollars less than my usual massage lady which really isn't much but this way I can hopefully get two massages a month. One there and one from my regular person. Plus, I am really, really, really going to try to leave fifteen minutes early for work most days so I can get on that bed before work. I think it would help me a lot. I usually arrive at work all hectic and stressed out because I have been cleaning and doing chores at home and didn't get as much done as I wanted to. If I have that fifteen minute buffer to calm my nerves maybe I can arrive calmly for once.

So that is all. I made a chocolate cake last week. I liked having it around, I always like having chocolate cake around. It's officially gone now and I think tomorrow I will make cookies. I also like having cookies around. I'm pretty responsible about it. I will just have a few bites every day.

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