Friday Night in the Not-So-Big Town

Fridays are my favorite night of the week. My husband picks me up at work and we go get a cocktail somewhere (last week was margaritas outside at a Mexican restaurant, this week--with the temperatures in the 90s--a G&T for him and a Lemon Drop for me at a secluded, air-conditioned little bar). Then it's off to the market, where we shop for dinner and for the coming week. When we eot home, my husband cooks dinner while I sip wine and try to be amusing. Often we get fish for dinner--we're close to the coast and our local grocery gets very fresh seafood. This week, it was too hot to cook in our un-air-conditioned house, so we got prawns, which my  husband grilled and served over pasta (cooked on the grill's gas burner) with cherry tomatoes, red peppers, leeks, olives, garlic, and chard (I picked and washed the chard, my sole contribution to the meal preparation).  We ate outside, and drank a bottle of cava with the leisurely meal. Once you open a sparkling wine, you have to finish it!

Since it was what passes for "really hot" here this weekend, I decided to stay inside with the window blinds closed and the ceiling fans going and get some household chores done. Saturday morning, I put in some laundry and started cleaning the kitchen--and I mean cleaning, not just the take-dishes-out-of-dishwasher-put-dishes-into-dishwasher routine I usually perform. Fired up by this, I next tackled the bathroom. You have to understand, I detest housecleaning. Detest. Loathe, even. And yet, somehow I was finding satisfaction in this. I've no idea why--it was like suddenly discovering that I could fly. Frankly, it's more than a little disconcerting. Today, I thoroughly dusted, did more laundry, including the slipcovers, and organized a number of drawers that badly needed it. All that remains are the floors, which my husband cleans since I conveniently have back problems. 

I'm not sure what brought on this odd spurt of domesticity--a longing for order, a need for control, the heat--but I'll just enjoy the tranquillity of a clean house, at least until the cats shed or throw up on something. I give it until 9:00 tonight.