Monday, October 3, 2005

Ironed sheets?

So, finished the morning school run and the Pilates class, and came back to the apartment to write, in solitude.

But not really solitude, exactly. Because the maids are always here. Don’t get me wrong, they are lovely. They work so hard, they’re ever so polite, they’re quite unobtrusive. But they’re around all the time.

Yeah, I know, my mom always says either “You’d cry if you were hung with a new rope!” -- [I don’t really understand what that means, but it’s something about the rope breaking or stretching if it’s old, and then you have to get hanged twice... gruesome!] or “You have pretty high-class problems!” which, I admit, it sounds like I do.

The maids at our apartment are named Selena, Hermina, Edina, and Edna. (Those all rhyme.... except for Edna...) Only Hermina is taller than about 5 ft nuthin’. Selena is about 4’10” tall, and almost as wide. She can’t reach up higher than the bottom shelves of the cupboards. All of the ladies are so cheery and they do beautiful work. I’ve never lived in a place so clean (...as an adult... (forgive me, ma!)) They do the dishes you leave in the sink. They mop the tile floors every day, they do your laundry, they iron everything, including the sheets.

Well, I never! I thought that was just an urban legend, or something, that anyone ever ironed sheets. I mean, you’re just gonna sleep on ‘em (or whatever...) and wrinkle them up again. Call me lazy, but ironing sheets seems excessive. On the other hand, someone else doing it is... quite nice, really. A “plih-zhah”, as it were.

But I am having a hard time with the lack of privacy. I was really looking forward to Miss T being back in school, summer “vacation” being over, and getting some time alone, by myself ... and then here are these maids wandering in and out and round about!

Yeah, I know, it’s a tough life.

Edna is the one that’s our main maid, I guess. She is charming and has a beautiful smile. That, in spite of having one front tooth missing. She’s going to be gone for two weeks, starting next Friday, and I’m already really going to miss her. Hopefully I’ll see her before we move into the house November 1st.

No comments: