Cleaning Day

The last few days have been absolutely beautiful ones in Philadelphia. So, what did we do? I went to a breast cancer seminar for Triple Negative Breast Cancer in African American Women from 8:30 – 1:30 yesterday (Saturday), and TD went to a simulcast at a local movie theater of a Metropolitan Opera performance of Das Rheingold in the afternoon from 1:00 – 4:00. This morning I went to the gym, then decided to clean the condo – and of course, we had dinner at mom’s tonight – prepared by Jean and it was wonderful!

We were supposed to go to the Annapolis Boat Show and spend a couple of nights on Curlew, but some things came up with Thierry and we decided to postpone until Monday, the last day of the show, and one of the more interesting. You get to watch the break-up of the show which is like watching a ballet on the water only the dancers are the boats, with lots of near misses – but often a crash or two – an event in itself, and a big party. Watch this video from last year’s show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfOl6lcrhL8&feature=player_embedded

Our housecleaner injured herself several weeks ago, and although she offered the services of her sister, I haven’t been motivated to call – until today. Actually I think it happened (her injury) at the end of August, how time flies! Thierry was away then, and on occasion I would be inspired to get off my duff and take a swiffer (dusting thing), and clean off the furniture. I even ran the vacuum a few times – especially before the book group met at the condo.

Mind you, my housecleaner doesn’t clean like I would, but she generally gets the basics done. This morning as I was vacuuming, I realized how much I really don’t like cleaning. I especially have a hard time with vacuum cleaners. Having had several in my lifetime, I have yet to find one that isn’t cumbersome and unwieldy. I have had up-rights and canisters, but no matter what size or shape of machine, I feel like they are out to get me. I mean, my legs get caught up in the cord, the hose gets twisted the wrong way, the canister either climbs up my leg or ends up crashing into furniture or turning upside down.

Thank goodness we don’t have a “lot” of stuff around (knickknacks) because moving things drives me nuts. As it is I have to skirt the edges of the bookshelves in both the library and office, thinking the whole time that there is an awful lot of dust that’s hiding in and among the stacks.

For weeks I had wondered why the condo smelled so chemically toxic every time the cleaner was here. I realized why when I opened a bottle of lemon scented Mr. Clean. Ugh! I thought I was going to lose it – the smell was incredibly offensive. I dumped the bottle down the drain and swore that’s the last time I buy that stuff. From now on I am going green and unscented if that is possible! Swiffer floor cleaner is next to go out of my cleaning materials inventory. These smells are bad enough under normal circumstances but when you are on chemo, the intensity is magnified by about 100.

Although I didn’t scour the shower, I did manage to clean a lot of things that my housecleaner consistently misses – so I feel like things are in good shape. I will give her sister a call tomorrow, and make sure at least once a month, I go through and catch all of those misses.

There have been two times in my life when we hired a cleaner who lasted only a few months. I was never happy with their work. I used to pay Lauren to help with cleaning when she was a teenager, and she did an amazing job when she got down to it. She even started cleaning for her aunt, and did some house cleaning when she went away to college. Does anyone really think their house cleaner does a good job? The answer is, they do if they get the basics done and lighten your load at any step.

The seminar I went to was good. I walked away with two bits of info. One has to do with overall survival rates of folks with my type of cancer, which isn’t as horrible as I thought. The other was about a new drug in the pipeline I need to explore. My sister Jean came with me which really made the whole thing easier for me – she was great company.  She even got up at 6:30 a.m. on her day off to come into town!

My birthday was on Wednesday and we had great fun at a Karaoke Bar in China Town. Everyone sang, danced, laughed and seemed to have a really good time. Definitely something we should do more often. It actually is a boost to go dancing and just letting loose – something I never did/do enough of!

They still haven't been able to straighten out my chemo-pills.  Fortunately I was able to get a stash so I am okay for a while. Amazing, one hand of the insurer does not know what the other is doing.

It has been a wonderful week, the house is sparkling and the Phillies are winning in what could be the last game of this series – making them division champions! Go Phills!