Cleaning Professionals

As a cleaning professional,  I would rate my apartment 4 out of 5 stars on a daily basis of cleanliness. 4.7 stars after a vacuum, with a definite 4.99 stars after a monthly deep clean (being a disco era rental, it will never reach a 5 without complete renovation).  The crumb colony in the corner of the kitchen counter has a mere four members after a post-meal rub-down.  The dishes are never dirty for more than half an hour; instead of actually waiting for a full load to use the dishwasher, we hand wash them and set 'em up to dry in there. 

In my lovely clean abode, I was sitting on the couch, laptop in lap, as I am frequently positioned, when my phone rang its schmoozy built-in ringtone.  It was JENNY! I love talking to Jenny. The conversation went something like this:

J: "Guess what? I'm about to do a huge, very expensive favor."
C: "Cool. What?"
J: "Ok. I'm hiring a cleaning service to clean the apartment!!! It's going to be SoOoooOO amazing! BUT: this is contingent upon us keeping it up so we'll have noooo moreee fruit fliesssssss alllll summmerrrrrrrrr!!" (That's "no more fruit flies all summer" for anyone who can't read past her excitement.)
C: *gulp*

I looked around, perplexed.  I couldn't real-ly find anything that would require "extra help" beyond our daily upkeep.  Thoughts went cycling through my head: about scrubbing the sink any time I wash my dishes; bending down every time a crumb is dropped as opposed to waiting to vacuum; storing my fruits in the refrigerator instead of nicely ripening on the sun-lit counter; when OH MY!--I was reminded of my mother's example, when I was a wee one. In Paris, my Dad's work provided our home with gardening and cleaning service. So what would she do? Trim and primp everything up before they got there, so they would know for a surety: she was a master at keeping house.  I was terrorized by needless cleanliness.  And now, something I thought I left behind is back in my life. Oivé, My Poor Life.

It's become clear in these last couple of days that Annie's Cleaning Services are going to go through with it. A time and date has been set.  (I still can't figure out what they're going to clean.) Moral of the story: All I feel is gratitude to be rooming with a cleaner freak than I.  What a wonderful problem and inspiration! Jenny, you're perfect for me!