madaboutmoose's Journal, 12 November 2009

Wow, you plan Mexican vacations like I plan Disney vacations!!! I had the next one booked while we were still on the last one! LOL You sound like your doing great, physically and mentally. You amaze me! 

I am the same way when it comes to the floors...not that I do it every day but I mop then scrub every other time. My mom cleaned houses too and so did I for a time so I know what you mean. :) Planning the next trip sounds so wonderful! Good for you! 

Haha. I REALLY need to get on my knees and scrub my floor. Maybe today. I'll take your post as a sign that it's TIME. Thanks for your line about life being precious ad tenuous. So true. I will try to be kind to myself today. (And I was thinking this am I need to develop a different attitude towards cleaning--so this ties it all together.)  

I had that type of floor cleaning in mind this weekend. Ugh. I HATE tile for its dumb grout lol But I agree, I get down and scrub it. I am happy to hear you are thinking of Mexico already how soon do you go back! :) Oh, and I LOVE LINDA RONSTADT!  

Do you have the CD Canciones de Mi Padre? That is my favorite ... get in the mood for Mexico CD ... of course I don't understand most of the words but hey ... eventually I might learn some more Spanish!! Our 20th Wedding anniversary is in April ... therefore ... Mexico in April!! Must do the bathroom floor this weekend ... then my whole house will be spanking clean!! 

Cleaning is a GREAT stress reliever for me, weird as it sounds. If I am having a really bad day or am very worried about something, the only thing that helps is to clean (the old-fashioned way like you) and also de-clutter. I feel so good when I'm done! It's an odd kind of therapy, but it definitely works. ;-) 

It does help clear the brain. It's just so hard for me to get started. My tiny one-bedroom apartment is a disaster--and here I am, on FS. :( Ah well. It's a cold gray raining day. Floor scrubbing time when the little one goes down for a nap.  

I did not get enough energy yesterday to clean well. Wish you were cleaning here, lol. :) I know what you mean about cleaning floors- I should do mine today! I love that you husband commented. Arn't they great. I love you five also! Man, I cannot wait at all for Thanksgiving. I am so excited. And that is wonderful to hear that you will see your son. You made me LOL at your comment in regards to running. But you are right. It is SO difficult for me to make myself do it, and you really got into my psych about why to really run. Too wonderful.  

Cleaning floors is a great stress relief...I remember when I would get really frustrated with my (ex) husband and sometimes pull out the vacuum cleaner right in the middle of a 'heated discussion'; then go at the floors with a vengeance, still 'discussing' matters with him. There were instances (sorry to admit) that I almost cleaned my entire house by the end of one of those short battles - such was the level of my adrenaline. It usually didn't settle the argument, but who says anger is non-productive??!! 

P.S. I know from personal experience that Michael McDonald is a lot more fun as a cleaning partner than was my ex. I can hear that sexy voice in my head right now....Minute, by minute, by minute, I'll keep holding on...Oh yes, I will. 

Oh I LOVE Michael McDonald's voice!!!!!! 

We saw Michael McDonald in person last year at a Casino not too far from our home. It was a great concert ... what a voice!! Anger and cleaning!! I had to laugh doit2it ... when I was a teenager about the only time my room was clean was when I was ticked off at my folks ... I think now they purposely made me mad just so I would clean my room!! I agree ... anger can indeed be productive!! 

No, I don't have the CD. But that is a good one to own! I love those songs, I am glad to hear you know them. My husband doesn't speak spanish, that makes me sad... I wish he would try more or at least listen to it often lol He will dance w/ me to it at least :) ... I AM SO GLAD I don't have tile in my whole house!!  

Let's not slight Van Morrison either...Brown Eye Girl takes me all the way back to 8th grade! Actually, I like everyone on your list, tho I have not listened to Paul Simon much in a long time --loved him and Garfunkle back in the day. Oh, my sister and her boyfriend at the time (now, husband of 35 yrs.) saw/heard Linda at Knotts Berry Farm when it was still a Farm (just kidding)....late 60's, early, early 70's...I think her Silver Threads album was new back then. Lovely voice she has --and I like her Spanish recordings, too. Actually, I think songs sung in Spanish are more romantic than English.  

doti2it - Being an original, Southern California girl (I remember when you could see the Matterhorn from miles and miles away when driving to Disneyland), I remember going to Knott's Berry Farm when it was still a small little farm, famous for their chicken pot pies!! Ah ... the memories ... Van Morrison is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES!! My hubby and I saw him in concert in San Francisco about 16 years ago ... same day I got my first tattoo (at the ripe old age of 35). Cindy ... I actually bought a computer program to work on my Spanish but I've just been so busy I haven't made it to work on it. I do better with understanding what people are saying to me than speaking it ... and good grief ... I get the verbs all wrong!!! I have a colleague at work who is pretty fluent and she's always trying to get me to use my Spanish more. I guess it is good to have something to work on ... LOL!!!  

I wish your cleaning partners would come clean my house, too. But I guess I'd have to help, and that's not likely. :) I am amazed at how quickly you got back down to the blue line! You are my hero! 

I got inspired and finally got offline and scrubbed my floor. Looks great. Washed it twice. It's shiny. Only did the living room but today I'll hit the kitchen and hallway. Was inspired by the Linda Ronstadt talk and put on my Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda CD. It was fun. Was thinking of my mother-in-law who said she always used to make it an exercise thing, pulling in her belly and giving herself a workout. I was definitely burning some calories.  

Yea beets!!! I have a couple of the Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda CD's too ... isn't music grand? Amy ... you are busy enough with your 45 zillion sometime jobs!! LOL!!! You get a pass from cleaning for now!! I don't feel much like a hero today ... but thanks! 

Her Profile (album) remains my all-time favorite EmmyLou. I absolutely love to clean, run, and sing at the top of my lungs, to that one. ...."I won't have to chop no wood; I can be bad, or I can be good - I can be any way that I feel - one of these days." That 'runaway from it all' song saved me many a rough day! 

Oh, moose...I do remember the view of the Matterhorn; and my dad taking us all to McDonald's down the street from Disneyland, for 10 cent hamburgers! A trip to McDonald's was a BIG deal in the 60's, when you're a family of 10 and you NEVER ate out. (Because you're a family of ten and a pound of hamburger costs less than 10 burgers at McDonald's!) As for Knott's and the chicken pies?...A family friend - a lovely and gracious lady - waitress'ed at that restaurant for about 30 years (she retired from there); probably served you a few of those delicious pies! And yes, Knott's actually was still a farm...no rides except for that little coal mine cart that traveled through a fake mine, with fake stalactites, which I thought was a big deal back then. I climbed the fence one time to get into Knott's. It was one very special blustery fall evening; the wind whistled and spun fallen leaves as we climbed that tall wooden fence...My sister, her boyfriend, me and my handsome Marine boyfriend from West Virginia had spent the entire day at Disneyland...we had been showing this WV boy all the local sights before he left, for Vietnam. By the time we made it to Knott's, it was closed. So...naturally, we climbed the fence and roamed through that quiet ghost-town- had it all ourselves. Ahh...what memories...I was only 16; He was barely 18 and wanted to marry me and buy a house in Santa Ana with the white picket fence and all. My older, wiser sister of 18 years told me I couldn't string him along....had to say yes to him, or break up. So I broke up with him! Still, he wrote me lovely letters from Vietnam and called me, drunk, more than once after he returned home from that awful war...but I never saw him again. You caused me to fantasize...what path my life may have taken if I'd said yes instead of no, to a young Marine back in 1968.