Just when I thought I was out...

When Sam and I were dating we used to talk on the phone for hours about everything in the world.  It was so fun to discover all the things we had in common; I knew it was destiny for us to be together. I remember how shocked I was when I learned that Sam and I had both spent time in high school cleaning out dirty trailer homes that renters had left behind.  For those of you uninitiated into the elite circle of cleaning executives in the rental industry it isn't all just dirty diapers and rings on the tub.  Sometimes the previous occupants had pets! For me, thinking that Sam and I had both scrapped hideously gross ovens and emptied the rotting food out of stranger's refrigerators was a bonding moment.  I liked him even more!  Oh, the romance of those early days...

Not so romantic however, is when past meets present and you look at your husband, now a landlord, and realize that his renter's mess is your renter's mess.  My expertise in this field has honed my instincts so acutely that I knew without even going into the house that this was going to require a more invasive
cleaning intervention.

I love that my father and my husband are both entrepreneurs.  I love when rent checks come.  But, and I say this with a great deal of shame, sometimes when people are having phone conversations and falling in love, they can misrepresent themselves.  It may be that when our heroine spoke of her cleaning days in the blush of first love, she spoke of them with the fond remembrance of someone who thought she would never have to do that again.

When we got through the door, the air was ripe with eau de chien (if I've spelled essence of dog correctly, that is) and some people (namely me) were not quite as jolly about the cleaning prospect in front of them as they were about remembering their war stories.   And really, back then it was my tough as nails sister that scraped the dead mouse off the stove top, not me.  I don't want to get into all the gory details, but needless to say, a heroine was flea bitten in the line of duty when she got reintroduced to the cleaning scene.  And she didn't necessarily react gracefully to that fact.

From the Sam and Sarah "Emotions" Collection, a Macbook Photo Booth Production

So anyway, here we are working along.  We sort through a fair amount of junk.  Our noses become numb.  We start enjoying the camaraderie of working together.  I start thinking that really, this isn't that bad at all.  And then we find it.  It!  The jewel that makes every moment of the day worthwhile.  Sometimes, just like on Antiques Roadshow, dreams do come true.  

You can see on Sam's face that he is shocked by our find.  No, your eyes do not deceive you.  That really is Jesus on high thread count velvet with an El Greco revival K-Mart parking lot frame.  Needless to say, there will be some new art in the Chalkboard House.