MarLa Sink Druzgal

Well, I can’t top last year’s Halloween post, because really, what tops Bax Vader? (if you didn’t see Bax Vader, please…click here to see Bax Vader.)

But I thought you would enjoy this blast from the past. This was our marching band’s Halloween Parade in Marion Center.

Can you find me?

I dressed up in what my best guess of what being a housewife meant: bathrobe, slippers, showercap and mud mask. What did I know? My mom worked full time.

Of course I have many friends who are and have been housewives for a number of years, and I’ve never once seen them lounging it up, because to run a house well, there are a lot of things to do.

South Africa has been the first time I have actually been, officially, a housewife. Kurt’s company does not issue work visas for spouses, so when you travel internationally, your official role is… “spouse.”

Of course my freelance writing in the states doesn’t count, so I crunch all my housewife duties into two days a week, which is nearly impossible to do. Errands in “Africa time” take forever, and just getting around even the suburbs of Pretoria (South Africa’s capitol city) takes time. This doesn’t even cover waiting for any service people (also on “Africa time”). Adding in time for my veggie and fruit gardening, jam-making and laundry, managing the finances and paperwork for everything related to both of us really pushes my two day max, and usually it ends up taking away one of my writing days.

I can only imagine adding kids to that equation. Bless your hearts.

So although my idea of what makes a “desperate housewife” has changed since the 80’s, and I now live in an area where I actually do see many who resemble the make-up caked, oversexed, bored chippies from the television show, thankfully most of “us” are just trying to get more done than the week has time, and hoping we don’t look like total hags when we run errands with our hair undone and our makeup sitting on the counter instead of on our faces.

Maybe my “desperate housewife” of 1988 wasn’t too far off, after all. But instead of lounging about, the poor woman just didn’t have time to throw on proper clothes before heading out for her errands.

Happy Halloween, everyone, and happy birthday to my big sister.

Love, Marla