Spring Cleaning

By the small miracles that occasionally happen in the MidWest, today was the most beautiful day since...well probably since early last fall. It was warm, sunny - everything a moody, allergy-ridden Midwesterner craves in the Spring. It was in short - the signal that Spring was here. As everyone, well, at least as every daughter knows, the first signal of Spring means that the ritual of spring cleaning must begin. Even though I have been out of my mother's house for nearly 6 years now, I still felt the urge to open all the windows, do all the laundry, hang things up to dry, vacuum all the carpets, shake out all the rugs, wash all the windows, dust all the furniture, and basically devote myself (and by proxy Gene) to the all day task of spring cleaning. It was to be a beautiful day of music, spring breezes, lemon scented cleaner, and good old-fashioned work culminating in a beautiful house looking like a page from a women's magazine with Gene and I sitting in our gorgeous living room sipping a nicely chilled white wine.

well...

I had forgotten that I had offered to help make costumes for the children's theatre production of Aladin, Jr. So gone were my hopes of blissfully cleaning all day - three harem girl costumes awaited me - sigh. Well, at least Gene could get laundry done.

right...

Costumes that aren't designed to have a lining - SHOULD NOT HAVE LININGS! It took me two hours of trying to figure out how to turn the bloody things right side out - I never did. So. Gene abandoned the cleaning to help me figure it out. It took 4 more hours and 6 phone calls to my mother. We never figured it out properly; but, nevertheless, three tops and six pairs of pants we made. Now the pants and thier linings must be put together - work for another day.

And the Spring cleaning you ask? A task for another beautiful weekend. :)