and only a mother can be brave enough to face!

Because life’s circumstances have kept us here in Tacoma for two weeks (Bill had to travel for work and Jackie sprained her foot), I have been intimately involved with packing up and cleaning the house Jackie and four other college students have been living in for the last 9 months.

Now mind you these are not overly messy kids, just the normal run of the mill college students who moved in the first day of school and never dusted, cleaned, or mopped the entire year. I think they did dishes and laundry on an as needed basis. The need being no clean dishes and not a single piece of clean clothing. I had the unfortunate opportunity to arrive at the end of the cycle. Good thing about rubber gloves though is that you can clean mounds of dishes with steamy hot water and your hands don’t dry out! I also got a great workout taking Jackie’s laundry from the top floor to the basement and back up again.

While cleaning the kitchen it was interesting to note that the number of empty alcohol bottles almost outnumbered the dust bunnies. One roommate told me not to worry because the liter size vodka bottle had lasted at least two weeks. This was the same roommate who told me last September that he didn’t drink. Hmmm…..

The bathroom was…. well, we won’t go there. Suffice it to say I double gloved!

Lesson learned: Oh to be young again and living life instead of cleaning up after it!

PS: Even though Jackie is all packed up and the house is cleaned (or as close to clean as it will ever be short of power washing it inside and out) and we could leave Tacoma, Bill is now sick with a “man cold”. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsvWK_EedLU