Lucky Dorito

Mr. Lucky and I have been married for over fifteen years and that entire time, we’ve lived at least 2 hours from our nearest family members. Over the years, my MIL and my sister Lena have visited at different times – others have come too, but not as often. (My mom came when both of my younger daughters were born to stay a week and help me. Mr. Lucky’s brothers and their families have come for long weekends also.) And my friend Shannon has come from Texas several times to visit also in the past 3 years. But… most of the year passes with no extras at our house.

Since I suck at housekeeping, that’s probably a good thing.

But I do love having people over, even if I’m not the perfect hostess.

We’ve lived in four different houses since moving here in 1994. The first two we rented, the next two, we bought.

Typically something goes wrong though – I don’t know if it’s just me or what. Call it my good luck, I suppose.

The very first house we rented was teeny tiny, only 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. We’d have wall to wall pallets and air mattresses in the living room and take turns getting our showers. It was always fun and cozy! Our basement flooded there but not when we had company, thankfully.

When we got Shadow, our cat – we were forced to move because our landlord wouldn’t allow pets. The next house we rented was dubbed the “Ugly House” because it was just that – UGLY with a capitol U. (When I went to look at it, the owner was remodeling and said he was going to be using very neutral colors in wall paint and it would be perfect by the time we moved in. Sadly, he ran across a sale on BUTTUGLY wallpaper and decided that it would be so much easier to slap it on the walls instead of paint so he covered all the walls in some heinous patterned paper that nearly drove me insane during the year we lived there! None of the rooms came close to coordinating with each other – each was an island of color unto itself. Blecht. Not my cup of tea.) When it came a heavy rain, our toilet would back up due to drainage problems that had to do with the low-lying area and where the city’s drainage lines were located. And one time, sitting around the kitchen table celebrating Suki’s birthday with a houseful of family, I went to throw something in the garbage and a mouse jumped out of the trashcan! Of course, the ONLY mouse we ever saw there just had to come out while we had company!

Then, we purchased our first little house on our 3rd anniversary. It had 3 bedrooms but again, only one bathroom. As Mr. Lucky and I began to have babies, our family of three grew to a family of five….. and one potty was NOT enough. Not only that – it was one potty that sporadically messed up because of this beautiful tree that lived in the front yard would grow into the seam between the new PVC pipe coming from the house and the old clay pipe that joined it and went the rest of the way under the road. Roto-rooter became a frequent visitor to our house, cleaning it out every 4 to 6 months or so. Of course, you KNOW that would happen most often when there were extra people over, right? Always such a lovely problem when we had company.

About five years ago, we moved to our house now. It is still a work-in-progress… and may always be at the rate I’m going. (Don’t anyone mention kitchen cabinets, k?) It has three bathrooms (thank goodness!) so we certainly eliminated one problem although we could really use a bigger hot water heater. Last time Shannon was here, back in the summer – the sink in the bathroom beside the guest room wouldn’t drain. (This time, I stocked up on Draino just in case.)

During the holidays this year, Shannon arrived on the 26th of December and was able to stay until the morning of the 31st. We had a great time although we didn’t do anything terribly exciting, except play Rummikub and take pics and do a little shopping. I can’t think of anything that didn’t work properly while she was here but….. when Lena and her boyfriend arrived New Years Eve for the weekend – my kitchen sink died. I made the tiny little mistake of putting potato peels down the garbage disposal and voila! dead sink. Which made for a BUNCH of dishes sitting around because…. wouldn’t you know, that was the same day that Mr. Lucky had a stomach virus and was holed up in bed all day.

Lena said to me, “I think I’d be a mess if I had a clogged sink… you seem to be taking it in stride like it’s not bothering you in the least!”

I said, “Well, what is there to stress about? It’ll get fixed when Mr. Lucky is better. I can’t crawl under the house and do it so…. we wait.  It’s not really something to worry about though.”

I’ve thought a lot about that since she made the comment. There are a lot of things that really upset me and get me all stressed out…. but crap going wrong around the house is just not one of them. If my kids are sick, I get stressed. If my job upsets me, I get stressed. If my husband and I are fighting, I get stressed. But…. plumbing problems seem to be just another little bump in the road of life…. not worth stressing over. I’ll choose to be happy.

Am I crazy?

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