Saturday, March 29, 2008

Don't think about it, just start scrubbing.

Good advice to a daughter who's been coddled her whole life and hasn't had to deal with a whole lot of cobwebs, mold and the general dust leftover from other people's lives. I think Mom may have advised me to turn up the music, too. Or maybe I just picked that up from her example. (She always woke us up to Saturday cleaning with the stereo turned way up--Abba or Aerosmith or some soundtrack or cast recording with upbeat music.)

But here's the scoop--Roger and I have moved. As of a couple days ago, our stuff is now in boxes in our new residence, except our silverware which is still at the old place, but which we'll grab tonight when we're giving it its final cleaning. The new place is not a normal rental situation, because we're renting from one of Roger's friends who's out of town for a while, so the place is his, though I'm taking his invitation to move in and make ourselves comfortable quite literally--starting with the kitchen. He took over this house from his uncle and didn't really cull his uncle's stuff; he just moved in on top of it. (He didn't need the space it was taking up.) So I'm cleaning who-knows-how-old spices out of the cupboards and dishes that probably haven't been used in a decade or more. There was this tin of old lemonade mix... How old? you ask. Old enough that it had been opened with a can opener (the last time I remember opening lemonade mix with a can opener, I was being babysat by my grandma) and the contents are all brown and one big lemon-smelling mass. (At least it smelled like lemon.) And I'm boxing up all of his (and his uncle's) stuff up and replacing it with mine--in part because I like my kitchen stuff and in part because if I do something stupid to ruin a pan or or something, I'd rather it was my pan instead of his.

So right this very minute I'm admiring our new view and putting on the Chicago soundtrack to belt out along with as I return to scrubbing out the cupboards. (Thinking about lyrics trumps thinking about the dirt, after all.) And you know I'll be posting pictures just as soon as I unpack the cord that links camera to computer.