The "Bree" in me, Part 1

I have two favorite TV series: Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. My husband makes fun of me saying "Desperate housewife is watching her series again", and I get angry. In fact, he is right ;-) I should acknowledge the fact that I find something in common with at least one of the characters there: Bree.

I love seeing my house in order, clean, everything in its place, and I don't really see what is wrong with that! In the house everybody is supposed to wear slippers, I hate that people enter my home with their shoes! I tried many times to explain them the reasons but they simply don't seem to grasp it. It is quite normal for us Turks that when you go to visit someone you take off your shoes in the entrance and they offer you slippers, or you change in to the ones you have carried for yourself from home. Nobody has the right to step on the carpets/kilims with dirty/wet/muddy/dusty shoes, or go in the bathrooms with their shoes and make dirty the floors which we step on with bare feet after shower. I found my little son many times literally licking the floors. I certainly don't want him to lick the piece of mud that a dear visitor has carried in my house from God knows where!

OK, this was the clean house part. My Breeness goes beyond that. You should see my dishwasher: each piece of silverware, cutlery, pot, glass has its own spot. That's why I hate it when someone else takes over the duty of filling my dishwasher, because I have to open the dishwasher and change the place of everything that is misplaced after that person has finished his job before I can turn it on. When you open the cupboards in my kitchen you see that I follow the trend also there: pots and plates placed according to size, bowls piled up in order of capacity, glasses grouped according to their function...

While ironing I can lose myself in a fold that doesn't seem to disappear no matter how much steam I use, while cleaning the floors I could continue vacuuming the same spot for minutes because of a single thread of dog-hair, while doing the laundry I may try all kinds of stain removers available in the market in order to get rid of a stubborn little stain.

Everything should be perfect, or at least nearly so. Things should be symmetric, or in place, or evenly distributed. I will never forget the face of my husband when he saw the first pizza that I had prepared for us: each centimeter square of the pizza had equal amount of cheese, tomatoes and what-ever-else found place on it. Maybe this was the result of my studying optimization for such a long time, I don't know, but doesn't change the result, I made a very mathematical looking pizza... ;-)

Well, I do sound as if "I have dust in my brain", as the Norwegians say (å ha støv på hjerne) :-)