Just call me baffled in Baka, cause what happened this morning and over the past few days makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I guess I should fill you in on our cleaning lady saga. So, our cleaning lady is Buggy's family cleaning lady. We inherited a slot in her weekly schedule when Buggy's brother and his family moved to London after the wedding. Well, our cleaning lady has always been very thorough, very good, cleaner. However, after cleaning for us once back in September, she stopped because of Ramadan. She never called us. Didn't return our calls either. And for an entire month, I had no idea where she was and when she was coming back. It was very frustrating as our apartment can get a little grimy and I'm not so familiar with the sponga stick.
Well, here's where things get interesting. She finally returned to us last week, at our usual time, and then when it came time for me to pay her and I asked for 10 shekel change, she informed me that she raised the price from 140 shekel to 150 shekel. Well, I was absolutely shocked because when she came to work with us, she told me her price was 140 shekel, which is 20 shekel more than she charges the rest of Buggy's family. We assumed she did this because we were a new couple, and she could raise the prices before she came to work with us, and so I swallowed whatever unhappiness I was with the price and let her continue because she was very good and also trustworthy.
So, back to last week, and me asking her where the inflation came from. She said it was just something she decided to do across the board. I asked if she was going to implement the same policy with my in-laws and sister-in-law, and she insisted she was, so I paid her. And then, I told Buggy to please fire her because I was so annoyed with her tactics. I felt like she was taking advantage, and that she saw me as some "wealthy American" so she could price gouge us.
However, before Buggy could tell her that we didn't want her to come anymore, she worked with my sister-in-law and informed my brother-in-law that she no longer wanted to work with us. She claimed the reason was because I asked her to sweep the front walk by the apartment (it gets filthy and we don't have a vaad baayit, so we need to clean the stairs and walkway ourselves). I was shocked because she never mentioned to me that she didn't want to clean that area and perhaps, had I known, I wouldn't have asked her to do it. No matter. I was livid at this point. I couldn't believe what was happening. Here she was dumping US? WTF?
I spent the week picking fights with my husband because the situation really angered me. She embarressed me in front of my in-laws, because she dumped us and made it seem like I treated her badly. So, I was upset because I was really embarressed. And, I was hurt because my in-laws didn't really seem to care about how she treated us. They just basicalled said it wasn't a good fit, and moved on. I guess I had unrealistic expectations. Here I thought, the whole family would rally around us because this woman was clearly crazy, and everyone would just dump her for treating us badly. Instead, they just continued on as if nothing had happened. I kept thinking that my own family would have certainly dumped her if this happened, and the comparisons abounded in my head and just fueled my anger.
Yesterday, my anger really drew to a head and Buggy and I had an explosive fight. Doors slammed, I stormed out, it was an absolute disaster. I ended up on a bench on Derech Beit Lechem with a pack of cigarettes, just trying to relax. Marriage is not hard, it's communicating within the marriage that's difficult. I finished running my errands, I stormed out because I was in the middle of buying food for Shabbos not because I was pissed, and I got back to the apartment and we talked things through. That's really good. At least we're able to talk things through, even if we have a lot of miscommunications. I decided to just get over the cleaning lady situation and move on, and Buggy seemed relieved. We went about the rest of our evening, which I'll write about in a minute, and then came home and went to sleep.
This Morning, Buggy gets an SMS from his Mom at 7:20 saying that our cleaning lady was going to show up today. He didn't wake me, a good thing, and he just ignored it and went back to bed. Sure enough, our doorbell rang at 8:00 a.m. and there she was, waiting for us. Buggy told me that I had to talk to her and I just said, hells no. Tell her to go away. Well, Buggy is much nicer than me. Much, much nicer than me. And, he tried to explain what happened. He mentioned what she had told our brother-in-law, and she denied saying it in the first place. Then, Buggy basically said that we were sleeping and we weren't interested in having her clean the apartment. I mean, I wielded the sponga stick myself yesterday so the apartment is clean for Shabbos! Buggy called his Mom, who said she actually wanted her to come to her apartment today to clean and that she was going to come and pick her up. The cleaning lady said she would wait in front of the house for my MIL. And then, before Buggy came back into the apartment, she asked if she was still coming to us next week at 1:00 p.m.
Let her come. I relish the opportunity to tell her, very nicely, that I don't work with price gougers and I can't afford 150 shekel a week. Honestly. We cannot afford it! That's 600 shekel a month! Which translates into $150 a month. Multiple that by 12 and, well, that's a nice chunk of change I cannot afford to part with since BOTH of us are full time students. Well, at least Buggy is, lord knows what is going on with Bar Ilan. I'm soo fed up at this point. And, since we both just booked tickets to London in 2 weeks, I just know that that's the week school is going to start for me and I'll be all aggravated because they ruined our vacation.
But, I digress. B"H, things with me and Buggy are better. Today is a brand new day, a new morning, a new chapter in our lives. Hopefully, we will be learning from our experiences and try to communicate better with each other. I am really much to blame for our fighting as I have an explosive temper some times, so my goal for this year is to try to reign that in as much as possible.
Last night, we drove to Tel Aviv so I could wrap things up with my old landlord. She had my mail from August with her, and it was much less than I had initially thought. But, it was so nice to be back in Tel Aviv and to recognize my old neighborhood. We actually had to go back to my old apartment because there was more mail waiting for me there, and now I have to figure out why the post office isn't forwarding my mail like they are supposed to. After the apartment, we drove to Buggy's Aunt near HaBimah and had dinner with her. She made a really nice bean soup, which was very healthy and extremely filling, and we spent a few hours there. We drove back to Jerusalem after Midnight and I fell into bed.
But, before I went to sleep, I called to speak to my almost 3 year old niece in Cleveland who arrived at a milestone yesterday! For the first time, she put on a pair of socks all by herself. I can't believe the nieces and nephews are growing up so fast! And I love talking to her! She is so coherent and fun, pretty soon we'll be having intellectual conversations!
Well, it's already 9:00 and I should probably go and start cooking for Shabbos. Fortunately, we are only eating here tonight and eating out at Buggy's parents on Shabbos day. That should be good as I could really use the walk on Shabbos. It's all uphill from here on Saturday, but the beauty is the downhill trek after a nice lunch. I'm making new stuff for dinner tonight, even trying this broccoli soup recipe I found in one of the cookbooks I have in the house (I've got 3, this one is from Suzanne Sommers). I'm also trying this chicken curry recipe, which should be spicy and fun, and then just going tried and true with a kugel.
PS. Anyone watch CNN's documentary, Planet in Peril? I watched the first night and it really was frigtening to see some of the awful things going on in China! If you watched last night, please send me an e-mail! I want to know what they said about the melting polar ice caps. Plus, before HOT drops CNN, it was nice to watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper one last time. Can you believe it? HOT is dropping CNN for Al Jazeera in English.
No words people, no words.
Shabbat Shalom!
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