My favorite day of the week

I love Tuesdays. Tuesday is the day when I make peace with the fact that the workweek has actually started and it's time to get down to business. At the same time, I know I still have several days to complete the tasks that need to get done this week, so there's little frustration or hurry in how I work. On Tuesdays, I feel competent, smart, and productive.

Tuesday is not only about work, either, because rest and the weekend is already in sight. It's only a convenient day or two away from Wednesday or Thursday evening, when new movies usually have pre-release showings at the Polus Center for $3 a ticket. Also, Tuesday is the day Alex and I usually do planning for the business, upcoming projects, and future travel. So I always feel optimistic and hopeful.

Every Tuesday morning around 10 am, Tanti Lucretia* knocks on our door and starts cleaning our apartment. So I usually start the day with tidying up, making space for her to work, getting errands done, and generally getting the "little stuff" out of the way--always extremely satisfying--and by early afternoon, the entire apartment is fresh and gleamingly clean. After Lucretia finished today, I sat down and chatted with her while we both ate a light lunch. A few years ago she bought herself a little one-room apartment to live in. She is already in retirement, so her options for earning extra income are limited, but she is trying to pay off her bank loan in the next year. She is so grateful for the extra income we give her (I'm guessing at least 2-3x what she makes per hour at her other jobs). Four dollars an hour is a laughable wage by our standards, but it makes such a huge difference in her life, and it's such a little thing for us. This is one expense I'm glad to have the opportunity to pay. Today I feel lighthearted, blessed, and grateful beyond measure.


*When Rick was here a couple months ago, he mentioned how nice it was having someone come to cook and clean a couple times a week in Tbilisi. The idea grew on me--at least the cleaning part--and before long, Lucretia was coming over to our apartment weekly. We already knew Lucretia because she comes several times a week to take care of Tanti Anna, the old woman (80+ yrs old) who lives above us. Lucretia herself is probably in her sixties. Anna recently had to cut Lucretia's salary because of changes in her financial situation, and Lucretia was working upstairs less often, so we knew that she (Lucretia) would have the time and be grateful for the money. So now she comes once a week on Tuesdays and cleans our whole apartment. It's not so much that Alex and I couldn't do it ourselves; we just didn't have enough time or energy to do a very good job of it. Now, we just concentrate our efforts on being extremely tidy, and keeping the kitchen and bathroom moderately clean throughout the week, and when Lucretia comes, she does everything else, and very thoroughly. Like mop the entire wood floor and carefully remove all the dog hair from the furniture once a week. It's fabulous. We pay her the equivalent of  $15 each time she comes (she usually finishes in 3-4 hours). It's absolutely worth the expense, and we've increased our work productivity by at least that much as a direct result of worrying less about housekeeping.