Tag Tuesday - Think Spring! And a story: A QUESTIONABLE ROOMMATE; And a surprise!

Okay, surprise first - Louise at Kard Krazy is no longer doing Tag Tuesday! Waah! But wait! I AM! I decided that since so many of us enjoy doing the weekly tags, I would try hosting it. The address for the new blog is here! SO, I will be posting my tag on both blogs, because I know there are some who read this blog who don't participate and would still like to see it. The challenge today was to Think Spring!

(click for detail)

If you want information about how I did it, you can click on the link above.

A Questionable Roommate

13th in the Tuesday Stories Series

When I was still single, I was living on Folly Beach, outside of Charleston SC. I became friends with a couple of other women at my church and they had just moved to the Isle of Palms, another island on the other side of the Charleston peninsula and asked me to share the house with them. It seemed like a wonderful idea, so I took them up on their offer. As usual, there was a honeymoon period while we became better acquainted with each other. One day, we sat down to divide up chores and reality sort of snuck up behind us and gave us a little smack. 

Janie, Glenda and I (and yes, I have changed names here!) were discussing what needed to be done on a regular basis; well, actually Janie and I were discussing it, Glenda was strangely silent. Occasionally she would nod, or murmur something but she didn't contribute much to the overall conversation. After we had listed the housekeeping chores and set up a rotating calendar, we posted the list on the refrigerator. Things seemed to go along pretty well, but we began to notice that when it was Glenda's turn to sweep and vacuum the floors, or dust, or defrost the freezer (yes, it was an old fridge), it was hardly being done. We finally had a talk with her and she looked at us and said "I don't know how to sweep." 

Surprised, we said "Well, we can show you."

"Umm, I don't know how to dust, either."

More than surprised now, we just stared at her. Finally I said "I don't understand - didn't you have chores to do when you were growing up?"

"No. My mother had maids, and I wasn't allowed to do any housework."

I'm afraid we both just stared at her as we tried to take all that in. Suddenly her very messy room, with clothes everywhere, started to make sense, and the unwashed dishes after she had eaten, and the litter box........

Ah yes, the litter box! Glenda had a very neurotic Siamese cat which mewed all day, and especially when she was at work. The litter box seemed to hardly ever be changed and as it grew worse and worse, Janie and I would bug her about it, but usually we ended up cleaning it so we could have guests without being embarrassed.

After the chores discussion, we set about trying to teach her the basics of keeping a house clean. She sort of half heartedly tried, but the truth was she really didn't WANT to learn and always had an excuse for pushing whatever chore she had onto us. The last straw was that litter box. It simply stunk.

Finally one day I told Janie that we needed to put our foot down because I was tired of being taken advantage of. We penned the cat and the litter box up in Glenda's room, made sure the windows were shut, and waited. When she came home from work, she opened the door to her room and we heard a loud "GAAAAHHHH!!!" She swept out of her room demanding to know why we played such a joke on her, and I told it was no joke, we were tired of doing her work for her and of the house smelling like a public toilet. She was not happy, but we were.

Eventually (pretty soon after that actually) she moved out. She was engaged and wanted to move into the apartment they would be sharing after the marriage. We knew that the future groom had no idea she didn't do housework and felt sorry for the guy. The rent may have been higher after she left, but it sure was a more pleasant place to live!