Help…

…is on the way! Tomorrow, someone is coming over to look at our house and tell us how much she will charge us to dig it out and keep it clean. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have found someone who I feel okay about doing this. First off, while there are filthier houses in the world by far, I wouldn’t want to live in them! I’m not much of a housekeeper to start with, and the combination of my physical challenges of late, and my unrelenting focus on my career, has been a guarantee that the dust bunny population has been able to thrive. Dust bunnies: Consider this fair warning.

Who is this brave soul who is riding to the rescue? It’s Heidi, the receptionist/assistant from my chiropractor’s office. She is very energetic, very meticulous, LOVES to clean (!), and, in this case, just as importantly, is very compassionate and understanding. Just the kind of person I need. Last week when she was telling me about another house she cleans on her days off and I said, “If they ever don’t need you anymore, you can come clean our house!” it seemed like a miracle when she immediately said, “I’ll clean your house on my other free afternoon!” And even more of one when I told her how neglected it has been and she still wanted to do it! Wow—looks like even Spirit is tired of the dust!

To understand, you need to know that Denver is one of the dustiest places in the world—I swear, all the dust from the Great Plains backs up against the mountains and settles on Denver. Even if you dusted every few days, it would not be enough. Perfectionist that I am, my response has largely been to just give up and not even try. (You know, perfectionism doesn’t just mean you do everything perfectly, it means you want to do everything perfectly and if you think you can’t, you just don’t do it at all.) Now—it’s not that I don’t ever dust, it’s just that in some places, it’s been such a long time since I dusted it may as well have been never. Once things start to get that bad, I get overwhelmed and throw up my hands. Which is what had happened till now.

There was someone else we were considering hiring, but she came in the house and immediately screwed up her face and said, “Oooooo—this house is very dusty!” And that was not that long after I had dusted! She said she was willing to clean regularly after a few rounds of heavy cleaning, but even though I thought about it a lot, and kept her number on the bulletin board next to my desk, I was just never able to bring myself to call her. Now I know why—I was waiting for Heidi! I need Heidi’s compassionate assurances that I am an okay person even though I’m a lousy housekeeper—something she has already given in response to my telling her my “dirty little secrets” to prepare her for her visit tomorrow. The other lady who came by to give an estimate made quite a different comment by the look on her face and the tone of her voice!

Rick is thrilled Heidi is coming, too. He’s been the one who’s had to pick up the slack while doing much more than the basics of life has been too hard on my knees. He’s really been a life saver, but he's no keener a housekeeper than I am, so it will be a collective sigh of relief when she has done her magic! Even though my knees have improved a lot, I only see more and more involvement with my work, and it will be really great to have a clean house to do that in! And it couldn’t possibly hurt my health to live in a clean place...