Pre-Cleaning

So my big task for today was pre-cleaning, that is, making sure the house is clean before the cleaning service comes tomorrow. I hope you all know that this definitely does not mean that I dusted and vacuumed, heaven forfend. I tidied up to the nth degree so that the cleaning people can get to whatever they need to get to. One of the reasons I stopped having cleaning people come in years ago was that they couldn't do either of the girls' rooms because you couldn't wade in through the foot tall pile of stuff and even find the floor, let alone vacuum it. And what was there to dust? The crap on the floor? Because the dresser and any other surfaces were piled high with make-up, scraps of this and that, and homework that was never turned in.

This was really one of the things I wanted most in retirement: someone to come in and clean. Yes, I do have the time now, and I even have the inclination. I just don't have the energy. I can't bend over for more than a minute or two, and even that leaves me breathless, so things like scrubbing a tub are out. And I don't even have the arm strength anymore to scrub a tub. If I have to get a part-time job (after the wedding) to continue to pay for a cleaning service, I will do just that.

Speaking of a part-time job, I know exactly what I want to do, if it should come to that. I want to work in an Apple Store. (You'd think I would have seen that coming, eh?) I could work as a concierge, or just a general person who gets people started and then leads them to the right person to help them, or I could, in fact, teach people how to use programs and stuff. I would have to learn much more about the programs to be able to teach them, but I certainly now how to teach people to use computers; I've been doing that for 25 years. And I could wear whatever I want and throw a blue Apple t-shirt over it, and probably do it part-time. And even if I work the occasional Saturday, or even a couple Saturdays a month, I know that as long as I work here in Bergen County, I'll always have Sundays off.

My videos have been a little goofy, yes? I don't know if the second one posted yesterday or not, but I think not. I shall limit myself to one a day then. It's so much easier to use the phone and the blogger app; everything happens automatically. I got a cute little app that makes the videos look like old home movies, so perhaps I shall treat you to one of those soon.

The wedding approacheth, invitations will be going out next week. Over 150 people are being invited, about 40 of them from our side. That's all we've got. We could expand to include the Hubs' cousins, I suppose, but that would actually be ... ten more people, most of whom we are not close with. We've been invited to some of their events, but none of their children's events -- okay, a couple of Bar Mitzvahs for one cousin -- and neither of our children have been invited to anything of theirs. Whereas my cousins, and I don't have many, include my children in all things. Plus, the Hubs has aunts and uncles who are coming, and I have no one left in that generation in my family, so my cousins are all the family I've got. And I only have ... nine of them to invite, and that includes four children. (I'm inviting another cousin, as well as my OldFriend, but I know that neither of them is coming.) I have about one table's worth of my close friends, and eight alone of our side consists of my sister's children and their significant others. Not to mention two to four guests who probably won't be coming for medical reasons. Oy. I'm so happy R is getting married, and to such a wonderful man, but the wedding business I could do without. *sigh* As long as she's happy, though, right?

I'm reading the first Artemis Fowl book (a middle school book) and not liking it at all. Why is this series so popular? And why isn't Mockingjay here yet?

Project Runway in ten minutes. Will they finally get rid of Casanova tonight? What an idiot!