Saturday, November 14, 2009

In My Dreams

Gee, those are clean dumpsters and wow, that alley is tidy. I guess you can keep your dumpsters and alleys polished when you have hired help.

I'd love to employ someone to do that for me, but first I'd hire someone to clean the house. Then I'd hire someone to do the laundry. Wait--no, I don't mind laundry, it's the cooking I don't like. So a house-cleaner, then a cook, then a laundry person, and that person would iron. (Am I the only one who still has clothes that need ironing?)

Oh! No, wait. I need someone to plant things--like landscape the yard. I also need someone to clean out the garage, which I wouldn't mind doing except I've got to clean out my office first. Oh, and I'd love to have a secretary, wouldn't that be great? Someone who'd call the phone company and pay bills and file things, take stuff to the dry cleaners and Goodwill and go to the grocery store...I guess that's more of a personal assistant than a secretary. That's a dream, isn't it? I'd love that. I might like that even more than having a cook. Maybe.

If I had all that staff in place I'd shine the trash cans and polish the driveway myself.

24 comments:

Dina said...

Dream on ...
Wishing you the Shabbat of shalom and tranquility you were waiting for.

Sahildeki Ev said...

I would love to have all those help, too but in the worst case I could easily settle with a cook..:)) I dont like to cook everyday..

Italo said...

Ehi, that people exist. I'm one of them! I'm able to clean, to cook (well!!!!!) ecc. I'm like a kitchen robot :D

Unknown said...

Haha, only if possible. Don't forget, you want a carpet cleaner too occasionally yearly.

Virginia said...

I say we chip in and fly Italo over here and share his services! Whoohooo!
V

Petrea Burchard said...

Ha! Dina, I'll be grateful for tranquility.

Aysegul, if having a cook is the worst case I'll take it!

Italo, did you read what Virginia said? It's not a bad idea. I can think of several Pasadena-area households where your help would be useful. If you come, we might chip in and get Virginia a ticket to visit the west coast, too.

Hi Marcus! Welcome. It's too dusty here in the desert for carpet if you have allergies, so we have hardwood floors. We love them. Except we have to keep them clean all the time.

Virginia, maybe Italo should stop in Birmingham first.

Bellis said...

I'll chip in for Italo as well! While he's getting through all the cleaning I've been putting off for years, I'll happily wash and polish the trash cans, then take him out to dinner.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Hi I was in Pasadena last year (from the UK ) and thought how clean and tidy it was there. went to a lovely hotel and theatre.You do live in a lovely place.

Yvonne

Margaret said...

I'll do the cooking, but I hate the cleaning.

Katie said...

I like all the rectangles in your photo, even in the pretty blue trash bin. Dina said it best with "Dream on" -- that's such a great phrase! I just need someone to come and organize all the many stacks of papers and ephemera and who-knows-what that just seems to grow when I turn by back.

Pascal Jim said...

For a real shine, nothing beats "Mrs. Wrights Silver Cream"

Thal Armathura said...

Hi Petrea,
If anyone is interested, here is the history of this complex, althougth your photo is from the Hudson side, I believe. http://avenuetotheskylakeavenuepasadena.blogspot.com/2009/08/union-bank-plaza-cordova-to-del-mar.html
I worked in the American Express travel office here for quite a time. My career in travel allowed me to go often overseas. I like Yvonne's from the UK comment on the tidy and clean nature of Pasadena. I can't imagine a place more clean and tidy than the English countryside. Petrea, as for having the means to pay others to do the mundane things, I'm all for it. I just haven't found a way to fund that way of life. What's the going hourly rate for a PA these days. The mechanic gets $75+ and the Psychiatrist $200 and hour, so a PA must be somewhere in between. I want to become the Psychologist who gets $200 for the 50 minute hour. Now, just as soon as I get my doctorate and some patients with insurance, maybe I'll be able to afford some people to help me get my stuff done.

Susan C said...

Virginia, you're brilliant. Count me in on the Italo-share.

Anonymous said...

I play a similar game, but it usually starts with, why didn't I marry a plumber. (This can be swapped out with electrician, car mechanic, or exterminator.)

Kim Thomas said...

Hey, I see my office! It's the 3rd row (8th floor) and the 7th office from the right. See the folder hanging in the window? I put it there so I can identify my office from the ground......

Petrea Burchard said...

I feel justified, now that Yvonne has agreed we live in a lovely place. It's one thing for us locals to brag, quite another for a visitor to agree. Thank you, Yvonne. Come visit any time. Apparently we're going to ruin poor Italo's Pasadena vacation but we won't put you to work.

Thanks for the excellent link, Thal. (By the way, I don't think you should be a shrink. Maybe a historian.) Not the Hudson side. I'm pointing the camera north here on Cordova St. between Hudson and Lake. At left is a parking structure and at right is the Chamber of Commerce office and a bank branch of some sort. I went there to find a white jacaranda that someone wrote to me about, which reminds me I'm supposed to find white jacaranda seeds. Any ideas, anyone?

Kim! That's so cool! I see your folder, that's hilarious. Now I'll look for it every time I walk by there.

Why not just marry a millionaire, Hiker?

HearkenCreative said...

Before we had kids, my dream was to live in a commune so that all of those cleaning/cooking/working chores could be shared, and people could gravitate towards the chores that they did best/enjoyed most. Now I dream of a commune simply for the cost savings.

I love how the shadowplay on the building creates such geometric patterns.

Susan Manning said...

Love the geometrically beautiful shot; with the shadows it looks like the two sides of the buildings are talking to each other!

And I really believe that dreams do come true!!

Petrea Burchard said...

Loren, after years of apartment living and inconsiderate neighbors I swore I'd never share walls again. I've never dreamt of communal living but it has nothing to do with cooking or cleaning or money!

Susan, we all hope you're right (about the dreams coming true, not about the buildings talking to each other).

John Sandel said...

Whenever I clean our house, I concentrate on the surfaces—the oak floors, the painted doorjambs, the walnut cabinets. I find it reconnects me with the humble wood-&-plaster machine, whose parts have not greatly changed in several millennia.

Ours was built in 1924. Three years later my parents were born. Thirty-two years after that I was born. Twenty years later, I got my first apartment; I spent the next 22 years living in rented plaster boxes. Now I've inherited this old hobbit-hole, so when I clean it, I venerate the handcarved woodwork and all the warped old glass.

This house has survived two stockmarket crashes, a few European holocausts and innumerable earthquakes. I love it dearly. Cleaning it is like bathing any wizened octogenarian—an honor, to be chastely and regularly performed.

Petrea Burchard said...

I love our house, too, sweetie. That's beautifully said. So, um...how regularly?

Linda Vanessa Tovar said...

I work in that building <3

Petrea Burchard said...

Welcome, .Nuves. I hope it's a good job. At least it's convenient to good lunch spots and shops. I was just in the neighborhood today and it was hopping.

Dina said...

What fun, everyone's ideas here. Esp. the exchange between J and you.