1) It’s a Day of Domesticity at Maison Robaire! I simply had to recognize that the house was out of control, and this morning two housekeepers showed up to give the place a thorough cleaning. I’ve only ever done this once before, two years ago before a VIP friend visited - but now I get to be my own VIP. Just as good as an hour of therapy.
1a) Besides, the moving van should be arriving week after next. The decks need to be cleared for the onslaught! Once the housekeepers go I’ll be targeting things for my own tag sale.
2) On ye Fycebykke, a friend made a comment about my allegedly glamorous life, contrasting it with the alleged dreariness of her own. It immediately made me think of Grace Kelly talking about her day in Rear Window (start at 03:53): “Oh, what I day I’ve had! . . . I was all morning in a sales meeting, and then I had to dash to the Waldorf for a quick drink with Madame Dufrene, who’s over from Paris with her spy reports. And then I had to go to 21 and have lunch with the Harper’s Bazaar people. (That’s when I ordered the dinner.) Then I had two fall showings 20 blocks apart. Then I had to have a cocktail with Leland and Slim Hayward; we’re trying to get his new show. And then I had to dash back and change.”
2a) And I admit, I can (and do) make it sound like that. For instance, there are two ways to describe last night:
Interpretation 1: Before dinner I saw on social media that two friends from New York were overnighting in Boston. We met for after-dinner drinks at their hotel and had a good catch-up.
Interpretation 2: Imagine the excitement of discovering that Jonathan and William were up from the City - quite impromptu and I had no idea! Eager to dine with them on Saturday, but alas, they were just overnighting. After dinner I rushed down to the Parker House and we flung ourselves into deep chairs by the window in the bar so we could exchange all the news over cocktails.
2a.1) If you read Dorothy Parker’s short story “Diary of a New York Lady” you’ll get the general idea.
2b) But more often than not it’s just commuting drudgery, Doyle’s, and dishwashing, and who wants to read about that? As Bette Davis memorably said in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex: “. . . an empty, glittering husk.”
3) All the curtains are open right now in all the rooms, something that almost never happens (as most previous roommates will complain). The crocuses are coming up. Spring, renewal, is on the way.