A Day with A Spanish Speaking Housekeeper

My friend, Felicia just had elbow surgery so she has her friend's live-in housekeeper, Suzie, living with her for a week helping out around her house.  She can't afford to pay her everyday, so she asked me if I could use some help for a day.  Of course, I could!  My husband's step-mom is coming to visit from Idaho next week and there are a lot of things that I would love to have done before she comes that I just do not have time to get to, so I quickly and happily accepted her offer.  I picked Suzie up at her house at 9:30 in the morning, brought her here and she went right to work cleaning my oven (which I had sprayed with cleaner earlier so it would be ready to go when she got here).  She scrubbed and scrubbed and polished and scrubbed some more.  At 11:30, I checked on her and she was still hard at work on that oven.  It looked like she had finished the top and one side.  Jeez, how dirty could it have been?  I came back at 12:30 and told her we would have lunch at 1:00 thinking for sure by then she would be done with that task and we could move on to something else. 

At 12:50, I went into the kitchen and got the stuff out to make sandwiches.  I took out ham and turkey and showed her so she could choose, she started saying, "No food, no food!".  Then she went on trying to tell me something in
Spanish about the food situation.  I cocked my head to the left, then to the right, strained real hard and listened as good as I could but I could only pick up the word 'no'.  I called Felicia who has a pretty good Spanish vocabulary and asked her to translate for me because I didn't want to starve the poor lady.  After Suzie and Felicia spoke, I got back on the phone with Felicia, "She said that she already ate."

"She did?"  I hadn't seen her eat and I knew she didn't bring a lunch.

"She said you told her to eat lunch.  She ate an apple and something out of the refrigerator."  Felicia was laughing at this point.

I had to laugh too.  "Oh, okay.  I just didn't want her to go hungry.  She's been working so hard on that oven........"

"Oh!  She's cleaning the oven!"  Felicia started laughing harder.

"Yes?????"  I replied.

"I had her clean mine and it took hours.  I kept saying she didn't have to clean it THAT good but she told me she had to do a very good job." 

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,"  I laughed and sighed at the same time.  "Now I understand why she is taking so long.  She wants my oven to look like it came from the show room."

"Exactly."  Felicia explained.  "She is a perfectionist!"

"Why didn't you tell me?  I would have had her clean the house first!"  I teased.  "Now, I'm going to have to clean the house but I'll have the cleanest oven in Riverside!"

Well, the fact is, I do have the cleanest oven and stove I have ever seen outside of a brand new one.  I need to wear my sunglasses when I go in the kitchen if there is any sunlight filtering thru the windows.  It darn near glows.  She finished up right around 2:45. 

She did have time to clean the blinds in the living room and dining room and do most of the blinds in the kitchen before I had to take her back to Felicia's. 

Today, I'm finishiing the blinds in the kitchen, taking a huge load of old clothes to Good Will, and washing sheets and towels.  I will clean the house on Tuesday and Wednesday next week and do a very good job so when Marj gets here things look like they would have IF Suzie hadn't been side tracked by the oven job. 

This weekend, I'll be gone again.  I'm going to spend tomorrow (Friday) afternoon thru Sunday afternoon with my three grandchildren while their Dad and Mom go to a Marriage Retreat thru their church.  We are going to have so much fun.  I hope it's warm enough that we can enjoy the pool.  We love swimming together.  I'll take pictures to share when I get back.

Until next time..............              ô..ô