31 is the magic number!

Do you know how there are people who are very helpful?  People who show up at your house for a party, and instead of getting a drink and settling in, they ask what they can do to help.  People who, a reasonable amount of time after dinner is finished, will jump up and start clearing plates without being asked, and then also wash your dishes.  People who make sure to clean up after their own kids when they come to visit.  These people exist, and I feel like I was always surrounded by them, and I was definitely not one of them.  I mean, I would try to remember to be so polite, but, I was never the first one to start doing something.  And then when someone else did already jump up and start doing things, I would sit there and think, "Well, is it going to be too many people in a small space now?  Or is it just going to look like I'm copying that goody-two-shoes who jumped up first?"  So half the time I would just stay sitting and let other people handle it.

I don't know why this was...it just was.  And I'm ok with leaving it at that- I'm ok with not analyzing it, or calling myself lazy.  It just was the way I was!  The thing is, I always wondered if there would ever come a time when I would become one of those people.

Well, my wondering has come to an end, and the unthinkable has happened... the magic age for me was 31.  I am now one of those people.

In the last couple of months I have found myself washing dishes more times than -(do I dare admit?)- in the last year! Ha!  That may not actually be true, but, Joel and I have the one person cooks, one person cleans rule, so, I don't usually do the dinner dishes. Anyway....at this point.. I wash dishes, often.  I can't seem to stand seeing a sink overflowing with dishes.  I can't function in a messy kitchen.  So I keep washing dishes, and wiping down counters and putting away bread left out to go stale and open jars of Vegemite.

This is a good thing, as part of my duties as the stay-at-home parent is to keep the house (clean).  It definitely took me a while to adjust to those duties in addition to taking care of the baby, and my husband will tell you that I didn't always do a very good job.  But I think I have eased more and more into it, and gotten better at it, and I hope to be a housewife rockstar here in Laos.  We'll see, of course. :)

Part of living abroad for a lot of expats is the chance to enjoy a few perks that one might not be able to afford back home.  This usually includes having some household help. In Laos it's quite normal to have a maid and a guard.  Your maid might do any combination of cleaning the house, doing laundry, taking care of the baby, cooking meals, paying your local bills (things like electricity and water), organizing drinking water, and more.  Your guard might also do much more than "guard" implies- including possibly being a gardener.  Mostly around here, guards just have to be a presence- we're not all out looking for beefcakes to stand at our doors.  We just want someone who is willing to spend certain hours at our house, when we might not be home.

Anyway, when you employ these people, you might get used to them doing things for you.  It is totally normal for this to happen. If your mom made you breakfast every morning of your life, it was probably pretty hard when you went away to college and had to fend for yourself in the am. Likewise, if you're used to having someone wash your dishes, you'll leave them for her to wash!  Goodness knows Joel and I did this when we lived in Angola and had a maid (back when I was still working).  Neither of us ever did dishes back then- except maybe on a Sunday, when they had built up from Friday night and all day Saturday.  But on weekdays it was quite normal to let them pile up all day, until the maid washed them.

So there are two things going on now in Laos... 1st, I've turned 31 and become responsible, and 2nd, ANTS.  We've had some really bad rain even in the week we've been here, and my BIL/SIL figure it's all the water outside that is forcing the ants to look inside for a dry home, as they swear they've never really seen this amount of ants in the house before.

But there I am, every time I go in the kitchen all, "Um, I found the spot where the ants are coming in!"  And then the next time, "So, they are over here now...."  And then the next time...oh dang, I've just started spraying them and killing them with full authority.  Because see, the problem is, even if it's not my home, I don't want ants inside.  And I'm one of those crazy freaks that sees the ants that nobody else sees- so I see them all (they are really there, they are just so small that nobody else notices them).  And they bother me!  So I want to kill them.  And I want to not invite them back.

So then, I also want to wash the dishes.  Dirty dishes left in the sink are like a gold leaf edged invitation served on a silver platter for ants saying, "Come! Enjoy this space!  Find some sugar! FEAST!  Tell all your ant friends to come along too!  No ID required!"  This morning, when Beni woke up at the crack of dawn (ok, it was 7), before anyone else, when I went to make my coffee, I found a glass that looked positively ALIVE in the sink- it had had soda in it the night before.  Definitely can't blame anyone for not wanting to do the dishes when someone else is PAID to do them...but, I'm going to do them.  Cause that is the kind of freak I am now!  Self proclaimed ant police and dish washer!  Do you want to party with me, cause don't I sound like fun???

Sing it with me now... 31.... its the magic number... :)

P.S. Special love and praise to you, if you can pin point the spot in my post where I left off, and then came back and finished the post after indeed having a few drinks.  I swear I was stone cold sober for the post my SIL thought I was tipsy when writing...but tonight... we've been to the bar, and had a few bottles of Beer Lao, so part of this post was tipsy-written!   :)



Also- anyone else with me on the not really being "that person" until some later date in life...or should I really feel bad about that? ;)