Free...At Last

Do you know the pleasure of being home alone with nothing to worry about? The feeling of being FREE of obligations? No more worrying about having guests in my home...No more grocery shopping or doing laundry, running out of cold drinks or bread!!! No more cooking and serving tea and snacks all day long...Now I can Watch my own TV or not watch anything at all...I can go back to sitting in my favorite seat without being squished with others!! And best of all, no more waking up early in the morning, changing my clothes into something decent...I can literally let my hair down now!!!! I am FREE!!

It has been one long summer....I have been hosting guests, for one month to the day, in my house with one trip in between to Cairo with my guests tagging along too...at times it was ok other times it was a huge burden that was so hard to endure...Thank Goodness, everything changes and things go back to normal in a way!

The first guests were my son and daughter with her kids...I know, I know, those are my own family, but still I have to do extra things when I have one extra person at home, besides my own kids are on vacation so they have to take mom for granted!!! Then four of my kids’ cousins, and my son’s friend came from the states and stayed with us for two weeks. All of these people were at my house all at the same time!!! We ran out of towels, detergent and pop much faster than anything else!! I went to bed earlier than I am used to due to the guests taking over my house, my TV, my kitchen and many other things too. My bed was the only refuge away from everyone, it was the only place that belonged to me in that chaos....I still had to get up early in the morning to do errands and get lunch ready... I think I spoil my guests a lot and that puts a huge stress on me but make them want to come back again! At times it felt that I am going insane...I just wanted to be numb and spaced out....nothing to do and no one to have around. I need a vacation after my guests’ holiday!!!!

The same day I said goodbye to the final guests, my husband’s cousin came with her three grown children and stayed with us for four days....She and her kids get the worst guests award...in the beginning I was kind of looking forward to her visit but then after the second day I figured her out and I could not stand her or stand looking in her face....she just took us for granted and I hated that....she has no privilege to take me for granted, only my kids can do that and I can complain about it too!!! I hate being used and taken advantage of.....Thank God she went back to her country...I just could not wait to see her leave.

The last wave of guests that came over last week were my daughter –again- and her family, including her in laws...who are not bad guests, they keep to themselves, do their own thing and if we are not going out they will venture out on their own, walking or getting around using their detailed map of the city...a lot of times they just sat around the house and read one of their many books they brought along, or use their own computers....they are not TV people at all...but still, I could not help but get bothered by few things....I had an argument with my daughter about it...I feel bad because she could not do much about it. And I regret that I had to talk to her about it. Anyway, they just left few hours ago back to their home.

I have enjoyed having Sophia and Amira here. It was great waking up at 5:30 am, feeding them and playing with them...they give the sweetest kisses that took away all the negative feelings, I am going to miss them a lot.

Sophia left me few souvenirs, two nice drawings and pee stain on the love seat and the bed! Oh, this morning before she left she throw up on the carpet, this makes it five souvenirs! Major house cleaning in process this week....until next guests, have a wonderful day!