I had a ridiculous evening and it's no one's fault

Do you know how sometimes you can have a ridiculous day or evening but it's really just a combination of circumstances out of everyone's control so you can't blame anyone for it?  That's the kind of evening I had last night.

My younger brother who lives in Kentucky called me yesterday afternoon as I was sitting in the break room with a couple of friends enjoying lunch.

"Hey, Bev.  I have a huge favor to ask you and you can say no if you want to."

"Okay.  No.  Absolutely not," I replied because I think I'm funny even though I'm really not.

He went on to tell me that his girlfriend/wife's (I've told y'all that story, right?) sister and her husband were flying back from their vacation in Mexico last night and had a connecting flight in Atlanta to get back home to Kentucky.  But a winter storm with possible sleet, freezing rain and snow was forecast in KY.  And they were right on the line of whether it was just going to be rain or whether it was going to be nasty and icy.  And then he asked if they could stay at my house if their flight ended up getting cancelled out of Atlanta.  But he wasn't sure because they might decide to just sleep at the airport or get a hotel but he asked if I could be their stand-by sleeping location.  And then could I help get them to the airport this morning or let them hang out at my house while I came to work if their flight was delayed for a lot longer.

I've never met these people in my life, but because I know my brother's girlfriend/wife really well and I've met her parents and they are all super cool people and don't seem at all to be a family of serial killers, I was totally okay with her sister and the sister's husband staying with me.

"Sure," I told my brother.  "But they need to give me time to clean their bathroom when I get home from work."  My mom and her husband were here for a week last month and I had not gotten around to cleaning it yet.  Don't judge me.  I have 4 bathrooms in my house so I had others to choose from.  Luckily, something had told me to wash the sheets and clean up the guest bedroom this past weekend so that room was good to go.  The bathroom?  Not so much.

I've also been in the process of de-Bailey-ing my house:  I spent a good part of this past weekend steam mopping floors, throwing out her food dishes, water bowls, litter boxes (yes plural even though she only used them occasionally), in between sitting down and sobbing because I was having to throw away all of that stuff.  I also had to prepare a couple of food items to take to a Super Bowl party, go to the Super Bowl party, and I was working on the two commission paintings I need to do so I didn't get all of the cleaning done.

I keep my house fairly clean most of the time.  But you know how it is when you have company coming.  You do extra cleaning.  Especially when everything is covered in a layer of cat hair and my cat had been sick with the never ending poops for over a year.  And I had never met these people in my life.

I got home from work at 7:00 and decided to steam mop the bathroom floor.  I cleaned the toilet (which is my most hated thing to do in all the world), cleaned the sink, and then before I cleaned the bathtub/shower I got sidetracked.  I decided I needed to try and get all of the cat fur off of the chair and ottoman in my reading nook which is right outside of the guest bedroom.  So I started cleaning that.  It took a while.  It still needs work.  Seriously?  How does the fur get so stuck in stuff?  I usually swipe a stack of the envelopes that adhere to Fed Ex packages from the office and use them instead of lint rollers.  They are way bigger and stickier.  (And do you know how many times I've sat in that reading nook and read a book in the over 2 years I've lived in my house?  ZERO.  That's how many times.)  Then I decided to steam mop my dining room, reading nook, and kitchen again.  Even though I just did it 3 days ago and all I've done is walk through the dining room and reading nook.  I haven't done one thing to make a mess.  Then I scrubbed the kitchen sink.  Again. 

The dining room.  It has super clean floors.

 

The reading nook.  It still has a lot of fur in it.

Then I started stressing out because I live alone and am more than happy to live off a bowl of cereal or piece of toast for dinner.  What on earth was I going to feed these people?

Around 8:15 I got a text from my brother's girlfriend/wife that her sister and husband had just boarded their plane and the flight had not been cancelled.

So I sat down from exhaustion and ate a gourmet piece of toast for dinner and was glad I didn't have to do any additional cleaning last night.

Then at 9:00 I got another text that said the plane was still sitting on the runway and they had not taken off yet so they might still need a place to stay because their flight was possibly going to be cancelled after all.

So I jumped back up and started cleaning up the pile of mail that was cluttering my kitchen counter and then I decided I should probably at least clean the toilet and sink in the other bathroom downstairs in case they used that one at some point as well.  No one has used that shower since I last cleaned it so it's good. 

At 9:20 I received a text that their flight had been cancelled, they were disembarking the plane but had to get their thoughts together, figure out where their luggage was, etc. and would let me know what was going on.

I went and ran the Swiffer duster over everything in the living room, ran the dust mop over the floors in there because I was frankly tired of steam mopping at that point, and made sure everything was straightened up.

Then I remembered I had never gotten back to clean the shower in the guest bathroom so I was heading that way and thinking, "How have I just spent almost 2 hours cleaning the downstairs of my house when it really was pretty clean to begin with?" when another text came in around 9:30.

"Hey Bev!  Thanks anyway, but they are really good friends with a coach at (local university here in Atlanta) and they just found out she is in town so they're heading to her house to spend the night."

So I started drinking.  (Not really.)

I did immediately go to bed though.

Thankfully, I won't have much cleaning to do this weekend now.  And I could almost eat off of my floors at this point. 

But I still have to clean that *&^% shower.