At some point in time I discovered that making lists of everything that needed to be done in a certain time frame worked well for me. No list meant that it was time to goof off and nothing gets done. Between the time I got home from the wonderful picnic and dinner I went room by room in the house to create the immaculizing plan for the Mother visit. It included fixing up the room Ninette had stayed in as a room for Mother and an thorough cleaning. The list was pretty extensive and forced a second list called Shopping for all those things like new towels I had put off getting. To the shopping list I had to add the new running shoes and maybe new shoes for Wes and Wally plus their haircuts so Mother did not complain about that.
Making a grocery list was out of the question as I was never good at deciding what I wanted to eat four days in advance. Plus I did not know what current diet, carbs, no carbs, meat, no meat that Mother was currently following. Easy way was is just go buy one of everything in the store. Last list was what else I needed to do like call the medical schools for an appointment, go to work at the Health Clinic on Monday night, do a crash course in how to be an interior designer by 10:30 on Tuesday and then arrange it on a calendar to make sure I got the timing right on getting everything done. Just two legal pages of things to do in the next four days. But it sure is fun to mark everything off the lists when they are done.
By Monday morning the boys looked great in their new shoes and haircuts, every piece of furniture had been moved so the woodwork was all shiny and the carpet vacuumed, my new running shoes were in the closet awaiting their debut and the car was washed. After Wes went to school on Monday Wally, who at four and a half made a good shopping buddy, and I ventured off to get the new towels and bedding for the guest room and the expensive trip to the grocery store. The amount of groceries I purchased was greater than the cupboard space so some had to be stored in the basement. I did make the calls to the two medical school and set appointments for the following week. By the time I had to go off to my volunteer job at the Health Clinic the only thing remaining on the list of things to do was a crash course in interior design. Oh well, one can't be perfect and I crossed it off the list since there really wasn't such a thing.
Being an interior designer was never in my mind of things I aspired to be. Somehow I had developed a disdain for them as they always seemed to be dressed to the hilt with lots of gold jewelry and driving an expensive car. The jewelry and the car were from the astronomical prices they charged. I had a nice new Mercury station wagon just because Dennis worked for Ford but forget the rest. Needless to say it was with great apprehension that I drove off to Barney's house armed with a tape measure and note pad and not an idea in my head as to what I was doing.
The house was in a very nice looking neighborhood, maybe ten to fifteen years old. Thank heavens that the moment he answered the door all the fear of doing this faded away especially when I found out that Lauren was in school and would not be home. It was a nice house, two story and I knew enough decorator words to say it had good bones and a nice flow. He had gotten a real deal on it and as we toured the house I could understand why as it needed a lot of help. Not only had it been decorated in some other out -of -date design phase but most of the drapes looked like they were from the clearance table at a Sears outlet store.
Barney wanted to just do the downstairs first so we went room by room. I measured windows while he, to my amazement, told me pretty much what he wanted. Of course some of the rooms needed to be painted as neither of us could imagine having dinner in an orange dining room. Wallpaper with mean looking roosters on it in the kitchen did not do much for wanting to stay in there long enough to cook anything. The powder room had a foil wallpaper with huge flowers on it much too large for the size of the room. I did ask him if the previous owners had paid him to take it off their hands.
There was still one room to check out but Barney decided it was - surprise - time for lunch. Didn't know you usually fed your decorator lunch but was informed that I was no regular decorator. So we had a very impressive shrimp and pasta salad that Barney had made while the wallpaper roosters looked on. During lunch he wanted to know if my prices were reasonable before he committed to all the stuff. I had to confess that since I was new at this I really didn't have any idea. My best thought when we figured out all the fabric and blinds I would just go to the most expensive interior design place in town and have them give me a price for them to do it. It would be very simple to then add 25% on to it for me to do the work. Somehow I managed to keep at straight face when I told him that but the look on his face ruined it as I just started laughing. He then stated I would get no more free lunches while he tried not to laugh.
On to the last room downstairs which was his office. He had already repainted it in a soft shade of gray. When you walked in the door there was a beautiful desk straight ahead in front of a large window and a pair of leather chairs. All the room really needed was a gray mini blind for the window. He told me to go sit at the desk and see if I thought the room felt good. When I sat down and looked up there were two framed drawings on either side of the door. It was one of those moments that you know your heart has stopped beating and there is no way you can even breathe.
Although I knew what they were I got up from the desk and walked over to look at them. There were the two Today Show set drawings I had done at Stephens and signed by Hugh Downs when he visited the campus. Barney was smiling and said that this was the first time he had ever rendered me speechless. He walked up behind me as I still stood there in disbelief and put his arms around me. His story was that when I called him after I had left Stephens and asked him if he could go get them for me, he did. When he came to Muskogee both times that summer to see me he just couldn't quite put them in the car to bring to me. They were the only items he had besides a couple of pictures to remind him of our time together. So he had them framed and had hung them every place he had lived for the last twelve years.
I turned around to say something with no idea of what to say when he kissed me and said not to say anything but to remember that he had said years ago he would always love me. Then he added that if I did not dash out the door in the next two minutes little Wally would be crying on the sidewalk in front of the Catholic church with a nun who was ready to give me a lecture.
Well....that was certainly a day to say the least. I made it to get Wally on time but it was one of those trips through town when you can't remember how you got from point A to point B. You could probably call that "blind sighted" driving as I certainly was. I got better as soon as I picked up Wally and asked about his day coloring and playing. It was a good thing he was too little to ask about mine. That would have gone something like "Oh, it was a nice day, Wally. I met with the love of my life and I am going to decorate his house although I don't know what I am doing. He fixed me a nice lunch and told me he had always loved me. You know - just an ordinary day."
Somehow in the following twenty hours I was going to have to come back down to earth before Mother arrives. Although I am hoping for a nice visit, a short one, one never knows what to expect from her.
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