I am Emancipated from Expectations

From the moment I was cut loose from my parents' home, and from the scrutiny of dorm roommates at college...I flat out REVELED in my housekeeping freedom. I literally carpeted the floor of my apartment at LSU with clothes, enjoying the cushy softness as I padded back and forth working on my graduate studies, drinking coffee and sashaying in and out to class and my very interesting job writing feature stories for the LSU News Service, a division of the LSU Office of Public Relations. I stacked dishes on the counters whenever I so desired. I washed them when the mood struck. The freedom was intoxicating. NO ONE, and I do mean NO ONE ever said to me "YOU GET IN THERE AND DON'T YOU COME OUT UNTIL THAT PLACE IS CLEAN." I was deliriously happy. My first job, back in my hometown, led to my second apartment home. Again, no roommates. Again, housekeeping heaven. It was do-it-at-your-pace luxury 24/7. On Saturdays I read books, hung out with friends or talked on the phone. I don't ever remember dusting that joint. In my defense, I WAS using a faded couch that had been on someone's sun porch and some industrial/type plastic and metal chairs for the kitchen. I have no idea where that ratty table originated. I was a reporter for a local T.V. station. When my photographer left for law school, they hired me to shoot my own video, without raising my pay. I worked during the day, and played in the evenings. I ate every meal out. I was completely impoverished in the domestic skills department. It was during this eighteen-month period that I met my husband. We were married within six months of our first date. We had a falling-out at some point prior to entering into marital bliss. I was so distraught I left work early that day. When my soon-to-be-husband stopped by my apartment after work, he was astonished to see me CLEANING with a vengeance. This sight was so unnatural, I believe it unnerved him to the point that he was subdued into smoothing things over on the spot. I guess he reasoned that there was just no telling what was next. I might enter chiropractic school in Tacoma Washington or fly to the West Indies with the Peace Corps. Anything was possible at that point.