Teacup Cafe XXXIX

[katya]

It was a long time before I cleaned a toilet, too. My mom didn't clean the one in our house very often, and I suppose it was easier for her to just do it herself than to teach us how. I got away with not doing laundry for a long time too, because "I don't know how". I just had to do all the jobs I knew how to do and she did everything else.

Looking back, I think our house must have been even less clean than I remember. Nothing was really cleaned that much.

[Midge]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Personally I think being raised inside spandex gives one better room to grow.

So totally not true. It gives everyone else room to WATCH you grow.

That smiley sticking out his tongue is saying "Ew!" not "haha, gotcha!"

Katya - that works until you get married and you don't really have anyone to say, "I don't know how" to. When you think it to yourself, you tell yourself the only logical solution: Learn!

I was like that too. That's what I am doing. Sometimes it's difficult to get used to a quirky washer, though.

[katya]

Yeah, Midge, as I got into my teens I started learning to do a lot more things. And then when I moved out of my mom's house I had to learn to do even more. Roommates don't like it so much when you don't clean up after yourself! I have to say though, my roommates have mostly been a lot messier than me.

"I don't know how" actually works pretty well on my boyfriend though. At least, it works if the job is something that I am likely to mess up badly or hurt myself trying to do. I can do all the basic cooking and cleaning though.

[Mari]

My sister and I both had cleaning jobs since our 15th birthdays in the Summers. I started in an infirmary. Now that was yuck. Still, had a lot of fun with the senile people living there.

Noble, I think you meant something like 'pampered', not inside cotton. At least, I have the sneaky feeling that you meant something that in Dutch would be called 'in de watten (cottons) gelegd worden'.

[katya]

I cleaned dishes at around 15, if that counts. Part of my job was cleaning the bathrooms in the morning. They would usually be pretty clean anyway, but my boss was really strict about little pieces of dust and such around the bottom of the toilets.

Then I cleaned rooms in a hotel for a summer. There were a couple gross toilets but nothing really horrible. I've seen worse at the public restrooms I've used (not cleaned).

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Though my pedigree may not be quite as impressive () as yours, Mari, I've spent two summers and a Xmas break doing...janitorial work. I've certainly cleaned my fair share of toilets, even before you consider the housework done whilst growing-up.

I've been lucky, though, I've never had to clean really nasty toilets. In fact, probably about half the time, the toilets I cleaned had hardly been used since last cleaning, so that it was in fact a pretty decent assignment.

And public restrooms can get so nasty.

[katya]

Yeah, at the hotel, most of the toilets are cleaned every day, so they don't have a chance to get very dirty. I'd almost wish they would get dusty so it didn't feel like I was wasting my time cleaning something that was already clean...

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Mari

Noble, I think you meant something like 'pampered', not inside cotton. At least, I have the sneaky feeling that you meant something that in Dutch would be called 'in de watten (cottons) gelegd worden'.

I guess the idea is being padded with cotton wool, but I don't know the English idiom either. Is there a Scandinavian idiom? Then I might try to translate it ...

[Grey_Wolf]

An old man went to the local newspaper. He wanted to have an ad in Classifieds.

He went up to the receptionist sitting in the entrance-hall and said.
"I would like a bit of help with an ad for a companion."

"That would be in Personals then." the receptionist replied.
"Now, do you like cooking?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Do you like walking in the woods?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Do you like animals?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Then I'll write that in the ad. And you want it put in on Saturday."

"You can actually write that in a newspaper?"

[Grey_Wolf]

Today Ive just successfully installed Windows 7, F-Secure 2010, the printer software, Ms Office 2007 and Photoshop Elements 5.0.

It went very smoothly.

[Noble Elf Lord]

Originally Posted by Midge

While not knowing what thoughts are going through your head, I think you may mean "sheltered". It's not like your parents necessarily thought you were above cleaning a toilet, they just would rather someone else do it while you were a kid or something.

I've never heard the phrase "raised inside cotton". Is it an idiom in another language?

You're happy not to know.
I guess you're right, and if I was pampered, I think it was rather passive.

Cotton's not the right word, just didn't have the energy to search the right word at the moment of posting. Now I can't remember the Finnish one either... um... ah, here it is, quite close I was: absorbent cotton. That's what we say in Finnish.

[katya]

Does anyone dance? My feelings toward dance have always been, "That looks fun, I'll try it for a while. Oh, I'm no good at this and dancers are so stuck up. Never mind." But it's been one of my (many) dreams to learn to dance ballet or something similar. I'm pretty far away from that now- I'm seriously inflexible, have only taken lessons a couple times off and on before, and I'm too fat and uncoordinated. (I'm not really fat though, I've been losing some weight lately.)

[Mari]

Katya, if you still look at least somewhat like you did last Summer, you are skinny. Very skinny. So don't worry about that.
Dancing IS fun, though I'm not very good at it. I did some ballroom dancing, just lessons, not competition, and it's lots of fun! You'll get better with practice, so don't let that deter you! And even flexibility can get better with practice
Maybe you can join a beginners class?

For ballet you'd have to talk to Sis. She can tell you more about that.

[katya]

Well, I'm thin, but in my mind I picture real ballerinas as being ridiculously thin. I probably do look about the same as last summer though, maybe better. I think I'm going to work on my flexibility for a while, and then if I stick with that I'll look for a class. I stretched for a full hour last night. It was pretty fun, because I could stretch a lot more than I could at first.

Where is Sis? I miss her.

[The last sane person]

Busy with real life.

*pours self a scotch and sits out on the deck*

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by The last sane person

Busy with real life.

*pours self a scotch and sits out on the deck*

Life is good

[Mari]

It definitely is.

What have you been up to, Jon, Sane?

[Mari]

Look what came my way: a fine example of the destructive powers of the vuvuzela.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Mari

What have you been up to, Jon, Sane?

Thanks for asking. I've been enjoying my summer holidays, attended a friend's wedding, watched the World Cup and stuff. Haven't really felt the need for entmooting the past couple of weeks

How about you? How are the job applications going? I've seen you mention them on Facebook.

[Mari]

So far I have only 1 interview coming up and lots and lots of negative responses, so it's not going THAT well. But it could be worse I suppose

Is Sweden participating in the WC? I don't watch soccer, so I'm sorry if that's a silly question.