Let's Pretend

I just finished cleaning my kitchen floor.

My kitchen floor had reached a state of incredible disgustingness weeks ago, but I did nothing. Today, however, is zero hour, because my mother will be arriving, and since I cannot hope to keep her out of my kitchen, steps had to be taken.

Which takes me back to days gone by and cleaning the house with my mother when visitors were due to arrive and complaining about the hypocrisy of it all. Why, I wanted to know, wasn't our normal state of cleanliness (which was a lot cleaner than the normal state, not to mention the current state, of my apartment) good enough for them? It was, I said dusting the salmon pink tile, a lie to show the visitors a better face than we normally had.

But I am not really trying to deceive my mother as to my standards of cleanliness. She has known me my whole life and she has a pretty accurate sense of where the cleanliness needle stands for me. What I am trying to prove is that I am capable of cleaning up on occasion.

(Whether this is something that I need to prove to my mother is another kind of question.)

It is the same reason you wear a suit to a job interview. Faking for the purposes of showing that you can, showing that you're willing to.

And then also, as I am unwillingly forced to admit, it is nicer staying in an apartment that's not disgusting.