Sarasota FL
Kelly would say I had a hissy fit this morning, but I would tell you I was on a mission. The trailer will be ready soon and the weather is warming up. We could be back on the road in the next week! But, our off-road projects aren’t finished yet. Since we had no other plans today, I decided we would tackle our trailer clutter together. All our boxes from the trailer are sitting in Pat’s garage or the bedroom we’re using. Why not start going through them?
Kelly had other ideas. She swore she could not even talk about de-cluttering until we had cleaned the house. The whole house. Not just the parts we’re using. So, we cleaned until the floors and every surface were shiny. We washed rugs and removed science experiments from the fridge. We picked up other people’s stuff and put it where it belonged. Kelly cleaned off Pat’s desk. I thought those last two tasks were a gross invasion of privacy, but Kelly insisted otherwise.
Kelly says we have to clean the remaining two cabinets in the garage before we can de-clutter. She says we’ll need a place to put, under lock and key, the items we remove from our trailer boxes. Even though she’s probably correct about this, I’m totally frustrated by the lack of forward movement.
Kelly’s afternoon meltdown got to the heart of some issues that have been building for a while. She worked so hard to get this house fixed up: replaced over half the flooring; removed pet smells from the underlying concrete; cleaned pet filth from the walls; repainted the entire house; fixed torn screens, removed shower and tile mold; cleaned the grout on the tile floors; cleaned up a flooded room after the dishwasher failed; replaced every appliance; fixed and replaced ceiling fans. The list could go on for hours. While her main purpose was to get the house ready to rent, her underlying mission was to make the house livable for us when we finish this road trip.
She rented the house to Pat because Pat loved the house and Kelly wanted to help her get a fresh start. We hoped our investment would be safer with Pat than a stranger. The state of the house, before today’s cleaning spree, made Kelly feel like a failure. She felt that Pat was ruining our property and destroying all Kelly’s work. Sometimes I think Kelly feels that, if she could just find the right thing to do, Pat would be happy and healthy, and she would become the mother Kelly dreams of.
We were so exhausted by our work and the emotional turmoil that we got take-out food from the local Mexican restaurant, plus some cupcakes from the local bakery. Cakes by Ron (http://www.cakesbyron.com/) could be on the Food Network. Amazing sugar work and cake designs. My dinner was scary – the sandwich contained body parts I’d never eaten before. But, the cupcakes were divine. We won’t wait for a meltdown or hissy to have them again.
Kelly would say I had a hissy fit this morning, but I would tell you I was on a mission. The trailer will be ready soon and the weather is warming up. We could be back on the road in the next week! But, our off-road projects aren’t finished yet. Since we had no other plans today, I decided we would tackle our trailer clutter together. All our boxes from the trailer are sitting in Pat’s garage or the bedroom we’re using. Why not start going through them?
Kelly had other ideas. She swore she could not even talk about de-cluttering until we had cleaned the house. The whole house. Not just the parts we’re using. So, we cleaned until the floors and every surface were shiny. We washed rugs and removed science experiments from the fridge. We picked up other people’s stuff and put it where it belonged. Kelly cleaned off Pat’s desk. I thought those last two tasks were a gross invasion of privacy, but Kelly insisted otherwise.
Kelly says we have to clean the remaining two cabinets in the garage before we can de-clutter. She says we’ll need a place to put, under lock and key, the items we remove from our trailer boxes. Even though she’s probably correct about this, I’m totally frustrated by the lack of forward movement.
Kelly’s afternoon meltdown got to the heart of some issues that have been building for a while. She worked so hard to get this house fixed up: replaced over half the flooring; removed pet smells from the underlying concrete; cleaned pet filth from the walls; repainted the entire house; fixed torn screens, removed shower and tile mold; cleaned the grout on the tile floors; cleaned up a flooded room after the dishwasher failed; replaced every appliance; fixed and replaced ceiling fans. The list could go on for hours. While her main purpose was to get the house ready to rent, her underlying mission was to make the house livable for us when we finish this road trip.
She rented the house to Pat because Pat loved the house and Kelly wanted to help her get a fresh start. We hoped our investment would be safer with Pat than a stranger. The state of the house, before today’s cleaning spree, made Kelly feel like a failure. She felt that Pat was ruining our property and destroying all Kelly’s work. Sometimes I think Kelly feels that, if she could just find the right thing to do, Pat would be happy and healthy, and she would become the mother Kelly dreams of.
We were so exhausted by our work and the emotional turmoil that we got take-out food from the local Mexican restaurant, plus some cupcakes from the local bakery. Cakes by Ron (http://www.cakesbyron.com/) could be on the Food Network. Amazing sugar work and cake designs. My dinner was scary – the sandwich contained body parts I’d never eaten before. But, the cupcakes were divine. We won’t wait for a meltdown or hissy to have them again.
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