house cleaning

One of the things that I told Samil when we started the process of moving in together was that I required we have someone clean our house.  I was too old to be having room mate spats about cleaning and stuff, and I knew I was really busy, and that he was pretty lazy.  So I thought it was a good time/money/stress balance.

Its now January and we're finally getting our first cleaning.  While the house has been messy, it hasn't been terribly dirty, so its not a big deal.  I had someone in mind to do this, but she became unavailable so Samil suggested someone else.  We'll call her L.  His selection of L combines a fair amount of smart thoughtfulness and a heaping dose of "that's a terrible idea Samil, what the hell are you thinking."

Samil decided to pick someone that worked in the activist organization we both met in.  This is a nice idea because its pretty much a group of poor college students who could use some money and need a flexible schedule.  I also like not paying a middleman or overhead: every dollar goes to L.  But here's the "that's the terrible idea" part.  Samil and L were, shall we say romantically involved, in the fall, but when he suggested they make it a formal sort of relationship she turned him down and that was that.  I am convinced, without a shadow of doubt, that this move is an attempt be near her every 2-3 weeks and eventually win her favor.  This is not behavior I'm comfortable my room mate engaging in with the person cleaning my apartment.  At the same time, who am I to keep Samil from making a fool from himself?  At the very least it will provide me fun things to write here...

And last night he did not fail to perform.

Once L got in, he gave her the tour of our apartment and then sat her down to chat for a solid hour.  He talked about tea, the stress of his job (more on that in another post), and the goings on of their mutual friends, etc etc.  Once she started to clean, he followed her around to see what may or may not need to be done in the apartment, trying to decide exactly what should be done in the apartment and what was not necessary.  This is of course something a contractor should tell a contractee if a job is to be done right.  You don't want to be unhappy because you weren't clear with your expectations.  That said, I don't think he needed to tell her that the shower needed to be cleaned or that the living room HAS to be vacuumed.  These things, I think, are fairly obvious.  But I'm probably crazy.  Also, between each room he made sure to ask if she had everything she needed and if there was anything she might want... tea, water, food, weed, and so on.

Once she finally got the rundown, he went into his bedroom and set up Pandora for her listening pleasure.  While she attempted to clean, he attempted to talk to her about Lady Gaga, and began by asking if she had ever heard of pretty much every single she's released, playing each song for about 30 seconds.  Her affirmative answers were obviously a sign to Samil that he should talk about how great Lady Gaga could be, if she got the right producers and engineers and songwriters and worked on her singing.  But she's pretty all right now.  He digs her.  The music is good and all, but you know, its not great.  It could be better.  If she had the right producer.  And if she didn't sing like that.  But this song is great.  Oh, but did you hear this Remix of Poker Face?  Oh man, you need to hear it.  She's pretty good, but man, if she had the right producers...  (I think you get the idea).

Eventually he got the idea that well, she didn't want to stay there all night and it would be nice if she could get on with cleaning, so he left her mostly alone... checking in periodically to see if she needed anything.  At this moment, possibly the funniest thing Samil has ever said was um... said.  He walked into the bath room and declared, "Hey... this is my last piece of gum.  Do you want it?"  "Um.       Okay."

I hope she comes back.