Enter the mind of an obsessive compulsive, anal retentive women in the city. She's turning 30, has a pantry and an uncontrollable need to feed everyone she meets.
In the mathematics of character traits, who is positive and who is negative?
Published on May 18, 2004 By citygirl In Home & Family
Well the last load of dishes from Saturday's dinner has been put away. I have a two week rest period before my mother-in-law arrives so, I've decided to lay low on the supper parties.

My uncle is coming into the city this week. If you recall, my mother wants us to drive to Queens to have dinner so that my cousin doesn't have to drive too far since he works there. I guess what I said to her sunk in because she told me during Mother's Day dinner that she's decided to have dinner at her house and have her brother visit his nephew on his own.

Dinner at my mom's is usually take-out. My mom isn't a domestic goddess. It's funny but I'm quite opposite of my mother. I'm not saying I'm a domestic diva but our views on home life are quite different. I make it a point to cook more days than not. I reserve take-out orders to once a week (twice at most). Every meal at my mother's includes some type of take-out.
I clean my house mechanically. I have a checklist of items for each room. My mother cleans if she sees a mess.

I guess our differences come from extremes. My cousin said during Saturday's dinner, "People usually go the extreme route of their parents. If they slant left, you slant right. This only happens when a parent leans to the extreme."

He's right. My mother always loses things. She's extremely disorganized, although it's masked in a web of organization. What do I mean? She's got ten billion file folders but nothing is filed in them. She prefers to focus on her personal life. I prefer to focus on my home/family life.

I used to say it skips generations. My grandfather is the king of anal retentiveness. Now I know my mother went extreme left to his right. And I swerved right to her left. Now, my grandmum was also quite organized. My father and mother were disorganized. So my hopes are that Hubby's tendency to leave socks on the floor and my need to give every item a 'home' will produce a normal child. Otherwise, I'm going to have to stock up on bactine and band-aids. I was tormented by classmates because of my need to contact paper all my textbooks and color coordinate my notebooks to my subject. Lord knows what my poor child will have to endure.

Oh, I’ve decided that I’m going to attempt to make a ‘don-tat’, which is a Chinese egg custard dessert. Why? Because, I’m psychotic that’s why. I bought a dim sum cookbook two weeks ago, and it looks like one of the easier recipes. I’m sure you have seen one before. It’s got this flaky pastry surrounding a golden yellow custard center. I plan to bring them to my mom’s dinner for my uncle. I’ll tell you how it goes.

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