Jim Carrey has nothing on me

It's been a while since I commented on the comments section of Living and Loving in Brazil. I'm not sure who is winning the great race between states, I'm not good at keeping track of these things, but I do know that Team Oklahoma received a special member when Deborah Niccum requested to join of her own free will. I also would like to mention that not once, but twice in the last week has my mom e-mailed me to tell me she liked my recent blog post, rather than simply clicking on a link to leave a comment and tell me in the obvious manner. However, in her defense, I will say that she e-mailed me today after reading the last post to tell me that she had been trying to post a comment and it wasn't working. I must acknowledge and appreciate that kind of effort, right?

Thank you to all of you who have been commenting. I've said it many times, but I'll say it again: it really means so much to me to know that you are out there, somewhere, being interested in what's going on with me and taking the time to read. I really am so encouraged by the comments you leave, even if I don't acknowledge them in a timely fashion.

Also, I wanted to direct your attention over to the awesome little map on the right and make a point to welcome Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, and a variety of European countries to the blogging audience. I have absolutely no idea who you are, but welcome! Even if you came by accident, it's nice to see some red dots over on your side of the world. Won't you come again?

I have much more to say but I have a reader in exactly 8 hours and really should not be here, but rather in the next room, in my bed, listening to the dog chorus that likes to practice outside my window at 1:45 in the morning every day. I wrote the following yesterday, just another insight into how my adjustment to Brasil is going. As always, please enjoy and feel free to laugh at me. Yes, at me. You may join me in laughing at myself. Goodnight...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm pretty sure I could have been my own episode of "The Truman Show" today, and the whole country of Brasil would have tuned in to watch the dumb American girl try to keep her head above water as she cleaned her apartment for the first time. It had to have been Emmy-worthy to watch me try to clean this with that.

Don't misunderstand me here. This was not my first time to clean my apartment. Because the whole thing is floored with tile, I sweep about every day since I keep the windows open all the time and my shoes track in dirt. But this was my first time to pull out all the stops: mops, liquid cleaner, toilet brush, etc, and then some other stuff that I don't actually know what it's for, but I figured Roberto bought it for a reason, so I just got creative and used it anyway.

When I lived in Abilene, I cleaned the house, but never all at once. I would vacuum one time, clean the kitchen another, clean the bathroom another, and dust another. (Okay, I'll be honest. The dusting didn't really happen too often.) But in those cases I had a vacuum, Swiffer, Pine Sol, Lysol, and English to work with. Here, I have a giant Squeegee, two large rags, a bucket, some bar soap, some disinfectant, some stuff in a blue bottle, and a broom. The stuff in the blue bottle has no section detailing its purpose, even in Portuguese, so I guess I can use it for anything. The bar soap seems like maybe it would be used to wash clothes by hand, and the disinfectant looks like a bottle of Snuggles fabric softener.

What would you do? Hire a house cleaner? Yeah, that's what everyone else does, too. :) So if you'd like to make a contribution to the "Cris Has No Idea What She's Doing, Still" fund, you can send your checks my way and I'll hire someone who knows what this stuff is for. Until then, maybe I'll turn on the webcam so you can see what me getting creative with housecleaning looks like.

Using dish soap in the toilet,

Cris