Hotel de la Sal?
Toys lay scattered across rooms, laundry waits in heaps- dirty and clean, while the washing machine works on overdrive and my parents are due to arrive here in two hours. We came back late last night after taking my step daughter back home and spending the weekend at the old house to meet with Realtors. This all after having said step daughter here for a week of swimming & play- whew- I’m sweating just writing this and am beginning to feel like a hotel- washing sheets and making beds for the next set of guests. Though, I suppose in the hotel business, the maids have it a bit easier as the rooms are devoid of toys and any belongings left behind can be discarded. I’m on double duty this morning, as my requests for “please clean your rooms” were translated into: toss everything into the closet or stuff it under the bed and throw a wet towel over it!
It will all come together in the end, n’est-ce pas? (I hope- Insh’allah, ti na kanoume, and all those other sayings made up to make us feel better and pass the worries onto God) Now new worries surface as my daughter downs the last of the milk with her bowl of Fruit Loops- what the heck am I going to feed them? My step daughter, bless her heart, would eat everything I made and enjoyed the sandwich picnics in Munn Park, downtown Lakeland, and didnot even seem to notice that I fed everyone grilled cheese before we went out just to save a bit of money. Kids are easy, adults are a bit harder, as I can’t picture my dad squatting down on a blanket for afternoon lunch- and five hours at the Kids Museum just may not be so amusing to them as a 10 year old and two young’uns.
As I down my third coffee to set myself into overdrive, plan menus, days, and finish the cleaning and laundry, I rush off with a quick Happy Bastille Day to the French and francophiles, who will undoubtedly be enjoying the fireworks tonight, as I saw them so many years ago in the South of France- Nice, from the window of Hotel D’Orsee by the railway station- my friend La and I downing tiny bottle of beers all night- celebrating our return and survival (freedom)from 5 unexpected days in Morocco.
Happy Bastille Day!