blog of death...

ok so much for cleaning being a politically neutral job...the politics have officially erupted...what was was a calming part of my day, a ritual of wiping...has burst into flaming rage and frustration at the fact that apparantly everytime I get off evenings there has to be a major meeting about what has/hasn't been done...seriously it's like the titanic sunk or something to have a major meeting about how to make a bed even...gruawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
that was a noise of prehistoric times coming from the pit of my frustration at the fact that once again...a simple existence has been completely ruined with politics...
and because I am me...i always take my side...so here I am taking my side and freaking out worrying if I have to go in for a meeting with the hosting boss because apparently there was dust in a room I cleaned...dust. dust, people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but I am a cleaner so dust is essentially like kryptonite to my life right now...
wait there is some dust on my laptop oh no...
I'm dying,
I'm dead...

Supreeeeze!

Kathleen, "Maria, are you really 28? We are scrubbing the kitchen floor and talking about how old we are and someone said you are 28. Your not 28 right? Are you really 28? How old are you? Are you really 28?"

I reply, "Kathleen, how old do you think I am? Guess, and then I'll tell you how old I am."

Kathleen throws out, "22, I'd guess your 22, you can't be more than 23. Are you really 28?"

I reply, "Actually, I am 28."

Kathleen runs back to the kitchen floor where the rest of the cleaners are still discussing my age. Apparently this was their reaction.

Mika, " Bull shit!."

Glen, " I'd like to see her drivers license and birth certificate please."

Raquel, "I told you so, Maria told me last week she was 28, and i believed her."

Oblivious to this whole scenario, I finish my cleaning job and convince Ben to crank the music so we can dance into the kitchen and entertain the rest of the cleaning crew...we enter with Lady Gaga blaring that she can't answer her telephone...we are dancing...or trying to anyway...

they all look up as we enter...

Raquel, "None of them believed me when i said you were 28. I believed you the first time you told me."

Kathleen, "I can't believe your 28?! What did you do with your 20's?"

Alec, "If you were buying liquer from me. I would card you for sure."

I reply, "Thanks, Alec."

And to Kathleen I laugh..."Yes, I am 28. And as to my 20's, time flies when your having fun."

musical madness

i love singing while I work. With my partner Ben, who is a music major...we sing as we lock up campus on our night shifts. Tonight was the phantom of the opera, I was Sarah Brightman and he was the Phantom...
Then we started in on les miserables...the soundtrack to my life:)...fav line of any song anywhere, of all time...

a river's just a river...

it speaks to me.

Some nights it's good ole Nicole and Ewan Mcgregor...as I clean dirty ovens and scrub infested showers....

come what may...i will love it...

blah, blah blah...

also the elephant medley, I always think of my cousin Katherine when i sing,

you think that people, would have had enough of silly love songs...

and when i am alone and Ben is off dealing with people issues and I still have my head stuck in a toilet out comes Doris Day,

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

or

Que Sera sera...whatever will be...will be

I love my job, but like most jobs it does need a bit of pizazz thrown in now and then, so while I live the life of a stereotypical maid, the wallflower, the drudge, the background to the real people,

I dream a dream and
sing and sing and sing...

anti social

me and my roomie, Stefanie are currently waiting for our company to arrive, onions are sizzling on the stove and the meat is ready to serve...but here we sit. waiting. which brings me to the reason for this post. having company, being company, in company, i like people. but I feel like I am not very social.
This summer has consisted of work, sitting in the sun, I read weathering heights, i listen to Rachmaninoff (and yes, I play it over and over and over) I don't really initiate human interaction. In the evenings me and Stefanie, (my roomie) put a puzzle together or watch asian soap opera's...well 'we' actually just started. I got her completely hooked, which means i didn't just start watching these puppies. Once you go subtitles you can't watch regular TV without feeling alittle cheated. I mean, I learn Chinese and laugh my head off while watching my asian soaps on utube...for example, shi-shi... means thank you. You just don't get more educational than that. Once again an awkward revelation that i didn't plan on sharing at the beginning of this post, but here's the thing, I could get you hooked on them too. Seriously, you don't even know how funny it is, watching dramas that you can't understand.
this post is degenerating, I am antisocial...I don't call people, i don't make get together's or plan parties...yet somehow God has still blessed me with friends that are coming over right now...or soon. God also blessed me with friends who laugh at my ability to get addicted to asian tv and Stefanie even watched some with me...and she is dying to know how it ends ( well maybe I am exagerating alittle) right now, Stefanie working on the puzzle again, and I hear footsteps in the hall, soon we will be in good company.

shi-shi

(Ry, your already laughing and you haven't even watched one yet...)

summer

currently I am making applesauce...yup, I have been plodding along with the whole cooking resolution. This morning I made pancakes, what can I say, I am slowly turning into a domestic diva...PS that was a joke. I really find cooking intimidating even after almost 5 months of this resolution. But I have been thinking about it, and realizing that there was never a meal that my grandma made she was ever completely satisfied with. I dream of cooking like my grandma, if I feel unhappy about every meal i make but turn out food like her; I am in good company.
I was bemoaning the fact that I haven't made anything this week except pancakes, when my roomie Lexi told me that I 'make' my roomates happy...now that is a recipe for success people...
in a few moments i will be off to clean apartments and change sheets, maybe i can do some laundry too. Doing laundry and getting paid, this is truly a blessed place.
Tomorrow we might-as roomates-make a crepe breakfast...with boiled eggs...cause i randomly confessed that I have always thought that breakfast with boiled eggs is so...so... breakfasty? it's funny though, cause i am not an eggs first thing kind of person. That is, i don't wake up in the morning and feel like an egg. Ever. Not scrambled, or fried, or poached, or deviled...but for some reason, little boiled eggs, in egg cups, with fruit and coffee and crepes sounds so decadent and yummy.
So this summer, I clean, i cook, I egg...

things i like and don't like

my job involves alot of moving and crawling and scrubbing...getting on all fours and sometimes putting my face right into a toilet bowl...it's intense...me and excrement, we're tight like that.
Cleaning up after university students and realizing that once again, people aren't all that they seem.
Take for instance the farm boys on third floor concord, they wiped their walls and even attempted a thorough oven clean. Impressive, makes my life a whole lot easier. I heart farm boys (not really but for the purpose of this blog, i do) It has been illuminating to realize that princess prairie isn't perfect, she can't clean an oven-or just left it for me to clean.
Then there is the nicest group of girls on campus, always willing to help out, lead a bible study, pray with people...but apparently they have no time to clean. They left their apartment a disaster. That wasn't the worst of it though, 3 good mennonite boys, easy going, normal looking...I shudder to even think about what their apartment looked like when I walked in the first time. And this was after the maintenance staff had pity on us and cleaned the toilet and tub for us. Oozing muck along the fridge bottom, rotten garbage, kitchen cupboards full of stuff. In a word, heinous.
But the all time shocker goes to the resident 'everyone wants to date him, all round heart throb, music major'; he left dirty boxer shorts and socks all over his room. And his toilet is rimmed in excrement and pee. All I had time to do was shut the door and try to forget that I could be assigned his room tomorrow.
I am not a neat freak, or even the cleanest person around. For me personally, I usually just tidy and call it 'done'...but getting one-on-one with some serious grime and 'people' dirt has lead me to call this attitude into question. I can handle my dirt, tidy my mess...but why can't I handle yours? or anyone elses for that matter...yours sucks...for real.
Then comes a profoundly shocking new revelation for me...I love to kill other people's dirt, banish it from every surface, scrape it into the garbage, rinse it down the drain and look around at the wonder of what I have just accomplished. Die! Die! Die! I love the feeling. It's like I have won a battle with all the forces of nasty germiness. I have prevailed against the forces of grime and dust. And when i leave that bathroom and shut the door behind me, I take one last look just to see the shimmering beauty of a clean toilet winking back at me. So rewarding. I am spartacus.

maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

mirror, mirror, on the wall
mums is the fairest one of all
she can cook for a hundred and two
entertain and what have you
she will ride the roller coaster
will play Catan when you come over
she runs, she is known to be firm
you don't even know the term-
she is 'the firm'.
whether it's hot or cold weather
she can always do better,
than the silly old weather.
Life is party, no whining
while your dining,
with this hostess,
she's the mostest
just a little caffeine in her system
and she can go energizer
not organizer, energizer...
exerciser
nothing she can't do
just don't 'organize-her'
but of all the things she does well
she is better than best
a mother like no other
a gaming, hostess, missiological,
quirky, americano, friendly, gardener,
cook, waitress, and secretary too,
but don't forget friend and
listener, praying,
prophetess you...
my mother

i love you

Happy Birthday Chick

But as usually happens in long journeys, the unexpected can suddenly happen. And life was no different for these little ones than for any other lamb. Suddenly, without any warning, Bright died. Death brought rolling dark clouds into the little valley. Clouds that made everything gray, clouds that brought thunder and lightning. They poured into the little valley, bringing a storm that wouldn't go away. It was being caught in the heaviest fog, making everything appear hazy. Life wasn't as clear anymore. Sorrow's heavy hand slowly, inch by inch snuffed out the light. The rain crashed down, filling the valley with the weight of loss. For the remaining three little lambs, loosing Bright was like drowning. The three little lambs could only watch helplessly as their whole world went dark.
For Passion, the relentless rain forced her out of the safety of the valley. She, with heavy steps, walked away from all that she knew to push higher. The fiery passion which drove her in all she did, slowly died to an ember. The loss of Bright was the loss of her home, her comfort, her safety. It threw her out to the furthest reaches of the earth. Grief confronted her with towering mountains on every side. But for everything she lost she gained God's gift of faith. Faith to climb those giants blocking her path, with each stumble and fall, she learned the strength of rising back to her feet. She learned a faith to take the next step, no matter how hard. Faith taught her to trust that each step would bring her closer to the one she loved.

No make-up May

yup.

I figure the ovens just don't need that much trying from me. speaking of ovens, I can clean them...I can clean them good...

also, my computer crashed. I have been living a computer-less existence for about a week now, other than the computer lab (when it's open) I told my sister about it, and she told me to pray for another one...I laughed. I mean, last I knew God owned a thousand cattle, not computers...but I did kind of throw out a 'would ya, could ya' prayer...mostly I think God thinks I obsess way too much about his cattle instead of tending to my life...

I cooked sweet potato casserole, but the oven broke, so it only half-cooked...the other day my roomate Lexi's fiancee decided that he needed to figure out the oven when he dropped her off at the apartment, he proceeded to play with all the little buttons and then figured he knew how it worked...but now it's broken so I am not so sure about him figuring out the oven...

thats it. yup pretty lame post, but I am enjoying life without homework and putting the radio on and just cleaning...