another head desk moment of the familial variety
12/14/2010 01:11 p.m.
renters moved out of the house referenced several entries back. now, yes, i should know better than to get involved with one of my mother's projects again given how the last one turned out but rent is due and we needed the $200 she offered us to help clean it.

it's been fairly uneventful, aside from her complaining that it's taking so long to get done. she offered the job on saturday and my husband and i stayed the night so we could get started on it sunday. she offered to bring my younger sibs over to help because the tenants trashed the outside property so they could clean that and then help inside. didn't happen. my brother showed up and we ended up hanging out, waiting for her to get her act together, which didn't happen.

my husband had college on monday and i started my first full day of a head cold. so nothing got done. but i didn't feel bad about this because i told her saturday that if we didn't get over there sunday, he wasn't going to be able to help d/t internship/school until friday.

on tuesday, i went up and cleaned by myself while husband interned. got one room done. kid left tape stuck to the walls, along with dried boogers. fun.

wednesday, my great-aunt was up to visit. got a photo re-colored for her after husband dropped me off before going to college for the day. nothing done on the house because my sister showed up around the time g-a was leaving and i ended up helping her move into her new house. my husband also showed up to help around 9p, he got out early since it was finals week and we didn't get home 'til midnight.

thursday, stayed home and slept most of the day while husband did internship and then college. head cold was kicking my butt, for obvious reasons.

friday, friend woke us up at 6am. she called to tell us she was waiting for the paramedics and could we please go pick up her co-worker staying at a hotel a couple blocks from here and drop her off? after which i ended up waiting for her at the hospital (just a bad fall, nothing broken but a lot of pain) and driving her around town. took her up to my mother's for an alternative health therapy session, husband and i cleaned master bedroom while waiting. ex-renter guy was mechanic, greasy handprints all over white walls. *head desk*

friend was supposed to visit fam two hours drive away for the weekend but couldn't drive d/t pain meds and co-worker who was supposed to go with her originally backed out at the last minute so we ended up driving her (in her car.) up side, we got the paving stones needed to raise our deck over the standing water in front of our door on the way back. down side, another day the rental wasn't worked on.

we owe this friend $200 worth of work for helping us buy a car, so she had priority - particularly since i had asked my parents for a one month loan for the same reason and they, being in a snit because i reminded them of their poor parenting skills a month prior, refused. (yes, i knew better than to ask but i let my brother talk me into it against my own better judgment.) after which, my mother went around telling my sibs i tried to get them to gift me the money instead of just borrowing it for a month til my husband's school loans came in. worked out better for us since our friend prefers we work it off doing odd jobs. all the same, there was some humor to be had since she went complaining to the same brother who talked me into asking them in the first place and he knew she was feeding him a line of b.s.

husband had internship again saturday. i went up to clean alone. around 3p, ma finally made it over with the three adopted sibs - as she said she was going to do a week prior. while this is helpful for getting some things done, it was not necessarily a good thing. this is an empty, echo-y house and she is ordering these three kids around in the tone and manner of an irate drill sergeant. 3-2-1: headache.

i am not thinking charitable thoughts at this point. one of her least endearing habits remembered from when i had to live with her was her entitled unreasonableness when it came to pulling me off of whatever job i was in the middle of to do whatever job she randomly felt needed doing at the exact minute she yelled, regardless of whether or not she could or should do it herself. god forbid the first job wasn't done the next time she looked in that direction. the only thing i dislike more than listening to ppl being yelled at is being yelled at myself...and there's not much leeway between the two.

therefore, i am not of particularly cheerful mind when she starts complaining we're taking too long to get the house clean. A: if she had gotten her crap together the previous sunday, more would be done now. B: we told her flat out that we wouldn't be able to do anything until friday earliest d/t my husband's college/internship schedule, which was why i did try to get it started the previous sunday.

while i am not surprised at her next line of complaint, i am not particularly amused either. 'we're paying you $200 to clean this house, i shouldn't have to bring the kids over here to do it.' right, i didn't ask her to bring them, she told me she was bringing them because she wanted them to clean up the outside and specifically stated they would help with the interior since the previous tenants left without emptying fridge or cupboards.

then she turned around and asked me if she should've paid me more money since the job was so big. i do not know what the going rates are for a job that size. she offered $200 and we needed it so i took it at that. had my husband been able to help, we could've had it done in 2-3 days. it wasn't so much trashed as just very dirty, as only a house where small kids have lived for over a year can get. (the white walls in the master bedroom and white trim through the whole house weren't helpful either.) and a mechanic - he was as bad as the kids. there's greasy hand prints all over the divider between kitchen and living room, on a flat paint too. too big for kids and no way the kids could reach that high anyway.

anyway, i "reminded" her we'd already agreed to $200. no need to give her more to complain about than she already was. fortunately, i was looking at the wrong clock and left an hour earlier than i actually had to, thinking it was time to pick hubby up at his internship. roads were getting bad so we stayed the night with my brother.

was supposed to go up there again sunday but we had church, then had to shovel our drive before it froze followed by my brother stopping in to visit. by the time he left we ended up crashing out.

which brings us to yesterday's head desk moment. went back up there yet again. things were going well since it was the two of us. then she shows up and unleashes the munchkins on us and we have an irate drill sergeant repeat. she yells at the youngest to do something outside, then after she's dressed but before she makes it out the door, she yells at her to clean out the microwave.

kid logically points out she was already doing something only to get yelled at further to clean the microwave. so she takes off her winter duds, goes over to the cupboard where the microwave is hanging and puts a bowl of water in for a minute, just like ma told her to in order to soften the dried food. as she takes it out, i turn around and do a double take - it was a metal bowl.

my mother does not keep a microwave at home because she believes it kills the nutritional value of food. ergo, there is no reason for any of those kids to know you can't put metal in a microwave.

logic does not stop my mother from haranguing the poor kid up one side and down the other and calling her stupid several times in the process. personally, it is my opinion there was at least one stupid person there and it was not my adopted sister.

(yes, i am aware argument can be made for me being one of the stupid ones, since i know my mother is like this and yet i still agreed to clean for her. all the same...)






I am currently Jaded