Diane Sawyer Made Me Clean My House

Six days ago, I was standing in the freezer section at Publix when my phone rang.  Deep in thought over what to have for lunch, it took a minute for me to realize that it was my phone and by the time I managed to grab it out of my purse, the call had already been forwarded to voicemail.  As I stood in the aisle – trying to figure out whose call coming from a NYC area code I just missed – a text message came in from my friend Evelyn.  It looked a little something like “OMG.  ABC News just contacted me.  They are looking for Miami area bloggers.  I gave them your name.”  Only to be followed up by, “NATIONAL news, not local.”

Um.  What?  ABC News is calling me?  World News with Diane Sawyer?  Holy crap!  (Okay, that last part might actually have been audible right there in the freezer section.)

I quickly grabbed a microwave meal and ran to the front of the store to check out.  In the car, I called the producer back but got their voicemail.  After a brief game of phone tag, we finally connected and they confirmed that they were, in fact, looking to interview social media savvy Miami area moms.  Yep.  That’s me.  We talked a bit about my blog, my social networks, my job, and my family.  We talked about how and why I use social media.  We talked about the format of the interview.  And before I knew it, we were talking taping dates – the Thursday or Friday before Labor Day.

When I hung up the phone, I knew it was time to call my husband and give him the details.  We talked briefly after I missed the producer’s call, but I didn’t know anything at that point.  I pensively dialed his number…because I knew exactly how he was going to respond:

“We need to clean the house.”

Okay, so I’ve talked about how much I hate to clean here on my blog.  I can’t even review cleaning products without saying how much I hate to clean.  But it’s true.  I actually come from a long line of people who hate to clean.  According to my dad, he once came home to find my mom vacuuming and reciting the words “I hate to clean” with each push of the vacuum…although she denies it.  They got a cleaning lady shortly thereafter.  We actually have a cleaning lady that comes once a week. but it’s not enough.  I live in fear that one day she’ll leave a note on my bathroom mirror, eerily scribbled in Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, reading, “I can’t take it anymore, I quit!” or something similar.  The fear is very real, people.

So when my husband brought up cleaning the house 6 days ago, I brushed him off.  I could think about that later.  After all, they weren’t coming until Thursday or Friday.  That is, until I got the call at 5:15 on Friday afternoon notifying me that they were moving up the shoot date…to Monday.  Eeek.

And so we cleaned.  And cleaned.  And cleaned our house.  All the while having very choice words for Diane Sawyer.  Very choice.  After all, it was for her show.  But out of concern that they might change the theme of the program to “kids taken away due to excessive clutter” or end up on an episode of Hoarders (is that even owned by ABC?), it had to be done.  We even got the kids involved.  Hell, I would have gotten the dog to clean if she had working thumbs.

As my husband and I waited for the crew to show up yesterday afternoon, we tried to think of the last time our house was so clean.  It took us a while, but we finally came up with an answer – Never.  Nope, not once has it been this clean since the day we moved in 2 years ago.  See, there’s not a stitch of laundry that needs to be folded on the couch in our formal living room:

And that family room that’s always covered in toys?  Not yesterday:

And who knew we had a dining room table?  I vaguely remember purchasing one a couple years ago, but it’s doubled as a craft area for so long that I kinda forgot what it looked like without blog review items and craft supplies covering the top.

My husband even finished that picture wall that we started all those months years ago…

All so we could be featured on the nightly news with Diane Sawyer and I could talk about how much I love social media.

By the way, that cake I’m cutting is a 3 layer tangerine cake that I made with a little help from Nobel Juice.  I kinda can’t stop thinking about it.  Hopefully, I’ll have the recipe posted before the broadcast.

Speaking of the broadcast, I’m not quite sure when the segment is going to air – the crew (who were absolutely amazing, by the way) said sometime early next week, but nothing is in stone yet.  I promise to keep you posted and sincerely hope you’ll watch.

In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my clean house.  And I’m sorry for all those choice words, Diane Sawyer.