Ready for Take-Off

By Amy Coward

 

 

The cleaning has begun.

I have vacuumed the house. Dusted furniture. Cleaned bathrooms. I’ve even scrubbed the baseboards and the microwave. All the dishes are clean and the fridge is spotless. The hardwood floors are gleaming.

Who is coming to visit, you ask? Is it a friend from high school? Is it your mother-in-law? The President of the United States? Sir Elton John? No. No one is coming.

I’m going on vacation.

I’m leaving town and I have this thing about leaving a messy house. I just can’t do it. Do I think someone will drop by while I’m gone and peek in the windows? (“Why, just look at Amy’s clean house. I’ve never seen such shiny floors!”) Do I want to be sure any burglars who break in are impressed? (“Wow! What a clean house! We can’t mess this up!”) I’m not sure what goes through my head. It’s just an age-old habit I can’t break.

In addition to spit-shining everything, I’ve emptied the cabinets and refrigerator of food, too. For the last two weeks, my husband and I have been eating the last of the food on hand and there’s not much left. (With a huge freezer at my disposal, I don’t know why I think this is an issue. But I do.) These last few days before the trip are going to be interesting, to be sure. Shall we have jello with a side of saltines tonight, dear? Or would you rather have some garbanzo beans with lettuce?

What, you may ask, does my husband do while I scrub and shine? Oh, he’s got his own kind of crazy going on. He’s in the backyard putting together a storage unit. Walls and doors are strewn about; a box full of screws awaits his use. A 20-page instruction booklet is flapping in the wind. Not sure why this was the time for that project, but who am I to question?

With just days to go before I leave, I keep thinking of more chores to do. Are there closets that need rearranging? Sure. Are there drawers that need organizing? Probably. But I’m going to have to let some of this go. As it is, I’ll probably be mopping the kitchen as I back out the door with my bags on my shoulder. (Don’t laugh. I’ve done this hundreds of times.)

It’s a blessing and a curse to be a neat freak at times like this. Maybe someday I’ll actually do all this work and stay home to enjoy it.

But that’s a thought for later. For now, I have some carpets to clean and pets to bathe. And oh yeah, I need to pack.

 

Amy Coward is a public relations professional in Columbia, SC. When she is not managing the madness of event planning at Palmetto Health Foundation, she is turning her empty nest upside down looking for fun and finding it. 

 

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