Mr. Cleaning ~ Blog 33

I think this is an actual photograph. Not of me, though.

We aren't big on gender-assigned roles in our household. That is at least partially due to the fact that I have no interest in fixing stuff around the house, partially due to the fact that we don't own our condominium, and partially due to the fact that I enjoy doing other things.

Yesterday was a good example. Ferried The Wife to work with Daisy Duke riding in the back seat. Daisy Duke moved up to shotgun as we went to Trader Joe's, then back home, then back out to Stop & Shop and Walgreen's.

Then it was on to unloading the dishwasher, cleaning out the sink, making lentil vegetable soup and making a breakfast omelette thing that TW seems to enjoy. On the side, I did laundry. I threw a bunch of dishes back in the sink, wrapped up the trash and ... my God, it's 7 p.m. already. Daisy Duke went back in the car and we shuttled back to Sommerville to pick up TW. She's a precious and dainty thing and needs a chauffeur.

Could be talking about Daisy Duke; could be talking about TW. Let's just leave that up in the air.

The moms out there, like Sarah32Flavors, know what this is like. How is it possible for grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning (and blogging and running at the track) to take eight hours? It just doesn't seem possible.

It's not fulfilling, but it's not NOT fulfilling, to paraphrase TW. It's a Catch-22, this life. You want to get all this *stuff* taken care of because you have the time to do it and, well, somebody's gotta do it. You almost, kind of enjoy it. Then, you feel kind of bad. You should want more for yourself. What do other people think?

I can't tirelessly defend these kinds of days, nor do I think I have to. There's no imminent attack on people kind of enjoying doing chores. The attack is from within our own heads, like it's not OK to have a humdrum-but-productive day.

I have days like yesterday and think, "I could get used to this." I work part-time at a job I enjoy and that pays reasonably well. I like doing chores and really enjoy cooking. Full disclosure: I also do oil changes and some work on our car (replacing spark plugs and headlights, recharging the air conditioning system), so I'm not totally off the Man Wagon.

It's possible I will get to a place in my head where I'm completely OK with this kind of life. It's possible that I will be frustrated by not winning some sort of blog of the year award for the rest of my life. This I know for sure: I make a mean lentil soup.

ADDENDUM TO BLOG 32
I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog about the purse-snatching that I made a horribly illegal left turn out of the parking lot. If there were police officers watching, I hope they died a little on the inside.