Denise vs. Rick With a Little Bit of Karma Mixed In

Saturday was my husband's 53rd birthday.  I hounded him for 2 weeks about what he wanted to do for his birthday.  Each time he responded with I don't know. Now here's the difference between Rick and I.  My birthday is in April 30.  I already know what I want to do that day!   I will spend my morning  at the 2nd Annual Panther Schoarship 5K Run  (Don't get any ideas, I'm not running IN it.  I'm running it!) Then we will go to the local Japanese steak house for dinner.  I like things planned; he likes spur of the moment.

Fast forward to noon on Saturday, Feb. 12.  When I got home from helping my friends set up for a dinner/auction, I posed the question to Rick once more...What do you want to do for your birthday? I get the same answer, "I don't know".  A 1/2 an hour later he finally decided that he wanted to meet our best friends Keith and Toni for beers at Leghorn's to watch the second half of the OSU basketball game.  Okay, so far so good.  When the game is over, he wanted to go for an early dinner at Red Lobster.  Great! So he called them and set the whole thing up.  As he is talking to Keith, he then invites them back to our house to watch the OSU men's hockey game.   WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!  Please tell me he didn't!  Oh, he did.

You have to know that I grew up in an environment where the house was always company ready.  Of course, my mom also had 6 kids with a chore list!  You never crossed Judy when it came to her house. So it has been instilled me that your house must always be presentable. What would happen if someone stopped by unannounced!   I'm pretty sure you know where this story is going!   You see, I hadn't cleaned the house in two weeks.  I was just too busy with meetings and work to get it done.  We have two dogs, a black one and a white one, who shed all over the place. No matter what you either see black hair or white hair. Rick isn't known for picking up after himself. So there is always clutter about.   I have sewing threads all over the place.  AND we are in the midst of remodeling again.  So, add all of these things on top of regular dirt, and you get a house in total disarray.

My first thought was to kill Rick. How could he do this to me?  But I decided if God  could spare his life after two bouts with cancer in 3 years, it was not for me to take him out.  So instead I set out to clean the house in 2 hours or less.  This sounds reasonable, but karma kicked in!  Our sweeper is on its last leg.  It will only run for about 4 minutes at a time.  Then you have to wait 15 minutes before it will run again.  We are in the midst of putting in hardwood floors, so buying a new sweeper just isn't in the cards.  In addition, the attachments fall off because they've been used so much that the fasteners don't work.  It's an upright.  The lever to raise and lower it is broken.  So it falls over anytime there is any force applied to it.  I spent more time trying to make the darn thing work then sweeping!  As you can imagine, I'm not really in a good mood and karma isn't helping matters.

At some point my husband had the nerve the ask me what I was doing.  Didn't I want to sit watch the first half of the game with him!?!?!?!?  Dude, are you serious?  You've been married to me for 24 years.  You really can't gauge my mood at this moment and figure out that wasn't the right question to ask?  Perhaps 'what can I do to help?' would have been more appropriate it.  I mean really, the man can build a shed from scratch, but can't navigate the mood swings of a woman.  Well, needless to say, I did get the house cleaned and got myself a shower.  Of course I had already taken a shower, but I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and needed another one.

We meet Keith and Toni and have a wonderful time.  The conversation was great and the food was awesome.  So we head home to watch the OSU hockey game. The house is company ready and the dogs are on their best behavior.  Sophie has decided tonight that Keith is okay to let into the house.  We are all standing in the kitchen around the table.  Rick plays the host with the most and asks if anyone needs something to drink.  Of course, Rick and Keith want a beer and Toni and I want a Diet Coke.  Rick opens the refrigerator and I am horrified.  There is apparently something dead in there.  The odor permeates the entire house.  I wanted to die.  I spent the entire afternoon cleaning and whining only to be  defeated by the ice box.  Of course everyone saw the irony in this...I had whined at dinner about my ordeal.

Good old Karma.  She wins every time, doesn't she?  I wish I had a little more of my husband in me.  He couldn't care less about the need to have every thing perfect.  I wish my husband would have a little more of me in him.  If I had known about his plans the day before, I could have cleaned on Friday and avoided the entire scene.

So what was the offending odor?  Broccoli in the back of the refrigerator.  I bought it when I had this idea we should eat healthier.  Whatever!!!!

Make Every Day Count.....
Denise