About Vanessa Muri
Montreal City Editor Vanessa Muri has lived in London and Tokyo, but finds the charms of her hometown irresistible. From the latest scoops to the best deals in Montreal and everything in between, don't miss her weekly take on life in the fair city.
Coming Clean
little secrets Montreal
(May.01.09)
Everyone has their little secrets.
And I'm definitely not talking about the big, scary stuff. I'm talking specifically about those little things that we are totally justified (at least in our own minds) in wanting, but for some reason don't feel comfortable sharing. They may seem too self-indulgent, foolish or trivial. Or perhaps we simply blow up their importance in our minds. We convince ourselves that others wouldn't understand, when they probably could just fine.
Our fearless founder Joanna Track revealed her need for blowouts in a previous blog entry. And readers seemed to identify easily with her; I know I did. So here's mine: I have a cleaning lady. (Cough, cough, where's my glass of water?)
It's nothing very regular, maybe once every 3 weeks for a couple of hours, but gosh, what a difference it makes. The reasons are legion, but the one that jumps to mind right after "I hate cleaning!" is that it keeps the peace in my house. I live with a relatively messy husband - clothes over the backs of chairs, magazine after magazine piled all around the room (he's a photographer) - and I am a neat freak, so I'm forever rearranging things, imagining that I'm cleaning at the same time. (No, the irony is not lost on me.) But it's surface cleaning; to keep the house really clean requires the big guns. I'm great with laundry, doing the dishes, but much beyond that and I zone out.
I'd go so far as to say that every couple living together (and that includes platonic roommates too) should have one over at least once a month. The arguments avoided, the extra time to spend with each other when your schedules are always packed; truly priceless. And people with children? I can only imagine that this need is doubled.
Why the urge to share this today? I guess I was inspired...because she is at my house right now, while I am working at my sister's place. This always works out well, because I need peace and quiet while I write, and getting away from home, where cats keep jumping on my keyboard, or my hubby is playing the music too loud, is never a bad thing. And I'm going to go broke if I don't stay away from the coffee shop every once in a while. (A much more expensive indulgence, trust me.)
The funny thing is, no one knows, not even my family. I didn't start out deliberately keeping it a secret but somehow that's what happened. So, it will be interesting to see who calls me on it now. I'll actually know who's reading my blog...and who isn't. Gosh, how sneaky! ;)