Saturday, November 28, 2015

If I Had A Personal Assistant....

NaBloPoMo Post #28

I'd Have Her Make My Bed!


One of the blog writing prompts from this month was "If you had a personal assistant who would do your most dreaded tasks, which items from your to-do list would you assign out?"

I hate making beds. I always have. I love the look of a nicely made bed, but I have never liked the physical exertion of making it. This used to irritate my mother who now, even at 91, makes her beautiful antique iron bed every day!

I think the reason I don't like making beds is my back! I have severe scoliosis. I wore a Milwaukee back brace from the age of 10 to 14. Even before I was diagnosed I can remember having horrible, extreme lower back pain from the age of six. I can remember sitting in my desk in my first-grade class, crying because my back hurt, and my teacher wouldn't let me call my mother to come get me because she thought I was just homesick and wouldn't believe me when I said my back hurt. 

Also, I'm very short, and that, too, makes it harder to make a bed, in my opinion. 

Anyway, I have always hated it. So I change my sheets at least once a week, and I "straighten" the blankets and spread each morning. But why do more, really? I'm just going to mess it up each night.

Actually, if it is just me, I can sleep in a bed and barely mess up the blankets. A little straightening is all I need do when I get up. But Thomas can take a 10 minute nap and the bed looks like a tornado hit it! He will, however, make the bed for me anytime I ask him to, and my kids have had to make their own beds since they were little, so it is a task I don't have to worry about too often. Still, if I had a personal assistant, that would be one of her jobs. (Yes, "her." I don't want a male personal assistant!)

What else would I have my assistant do? I'm not sure. I actually like to do dishes and laundry, even folding and putting away. I enjoy ironing, though I rarely have anything that needs ironing. I love cooking. I don't mind doing the bathroom, except cleaning the tub -- for the same reason I don't like making beds, I guess. The leaning over and reaching and such hurts my back. So that's something else she'd get to do. 

Sweeping, mopping, dusting, I don't mind, although as I get older, mopping hurts my back more. You notice these are all cleaning jobs for my "personal assistant" to do? I guess she would be more of a maid or housekeeper, wouldn't she? I like doing my own clerical and bookkeeping stuff. She'd have to stay away from those things.

Ooh, I know! Running errands and shopping! That's what I'd have her do!

So if you had a PA, what chores would you assign out?

~ ~ Lori

2 comments:

peppylady (Dora) said...

I bet everyone has some type of chore they are not fond of. I have to say mine is dusting. I don't like blaming others on anything in life.
My mother made me hate dusting...the woman hate to dust and I had that chore when I was in my parents place.
I can only recall my mom picking up a dust rag was twice a year spring and fall when we scrub the place down ceiling to floor. She then would dust.

Coffee is on

Geo. said...

Oh gosh, the Milwaukee brace. We're no strangers to it here. Youngest son wore one from ages 7 to 15 and hated it. When he was old enough --15-- to decide to undergo the operation, he bravely did and his height increased from 5 foot 9 inches to 6'1" in a single day. Recovery and adjustment were slow, heartbreakingly gradual, but he's 36 now and only bothered on cold days when he feels the steel rods in his back. Your post makes me feel more confident about his future mobility and physical well-being. He is an artist and musician in San Francisco, has traveled the world in performance, but mainly, he is my hero. Don't know if he makes his bed, but he cooks for me when I go see him. I consider you a hero too.