{"id":24,"date":"2008-05-11T13:39:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-11T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/?p=24"},"modified":"2016-05-16T21:35:50","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T01:35:50","slug":"spring-cleaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/2008\/05\/spring-cleaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Cleaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I was woken up by the sounds of a vacuum cleaner and loud music coming from the stereo. I throw the blanket over my head because I don&#8217;t feel like getting up.<\/p>\n<p>Looking out the window, I see a beautiful Sunday morning. The sky is bright and a beautiful shade of blue with only one or two gray clouds.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float:left;margin-right: 10px;\"><span class=\"youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"320\" height=\"265\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IDqN_awBHFs?wmode=transparent&amp;fs=1&amp;hl=en&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;showsearch=0&amp;rel=1&amp;theme=dark\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p> That cloud is casting a shady spot as it rolls down the street as it heads towards my front yard.<\/p>\n<p>I close my eyes, fall back asleep again for a few more minutes hoping that the gray cloud would just go on by.<\/p>\n<p>Again the loud whirling of the vacuum cleaner wakes me up. I give in and decide to get out of bed and head downstairs for breakfast. The sounds of mom&#8217;s Spanish music fills the air as I descend down the staircase.<\/p>\n<p>Loud, upbeat and a happy mood fills my mother&#8217;s way of being. I guess she is enjoying Spring cleaning&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mom, can I go outside and play?&#8221; I ask her excitedly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sure, after you clean up your room.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>OK that sound fair enough. I can do my part of the Spring cleaning chores. I run back upstairs, make my bed and put the dirty clothes in the hamper. Again I charge down the stairs and I&#8217;m heading out the door, when my mom asks&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Did you sweep and mop the floor?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Oh no! &#8220;do I have to do that?&#8221; I challenge her.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just do it! Then you can go out and play.&#8221; was her reply.<\/p>\n<p>While I mop, the music filling the air is soft ballads from the old country. They are love songs and patriotic ballads from Ecuador. I thought nothing of it. She would always play sounds from back home. It was music from her youth &amp; her old friends. The ballads sang of hope and heraldry for the love of our country.<\/p>\n<p>About 45 minutes later I am done mopping the floor &amp; cleaning out the bucket so I head downstairs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mom, I&#8217;m done! I&#8217;m going out to play&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This time there was no reply and she is nowhere to be found. The music style had changed and now there is a love song on the stereo. It sings of missed opportunities and love that cannot be.<\/p>\n<p>It was melancholic and a bit dramatic.<\/p>\n<p>I guess mom is missing the old days&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, where&#8217;s mom? I start searching for her &amp; realize that she was in the front yard picking tomatoes for lunch. &#8220;OK mom, I&#8217;ll be back by lunchtime.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where do you think you&#8217;re going?&#8221; she asks as if she forgot our deal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;out to play&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No! Go and clean the upstairs bathroom.&#8221; she demanded<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But mom, you said I can go out when I was done with my room&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now you need to do the bathroom!&#8221; she insisted.<\/p>\n<p>Begrudgingly I went and did it. &#8220;Well, If I can go out and play after that, then it won&#8217;t be so bad.&#8221; I justified that to myself.<\/p>\n<p>Again another 45 minutes passed, but I was done! Now I can go out to play. Heading down the stairs, the music still blaring, I hear my mother crying. This time the music went from melancholic to downright sad. It sang of loves lost &amp; the longing for days gone by. It sang of missing out on what life has to offer.<\/p>\n<p>Oh Boy! She is in her sad mood.<\/p>\n<p>This time I try and sneak out the door. &#8220;Where do you think you are going?&#8221; mom stops me.<\/p>\n<p>Again, did she forget our deal?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Umm, outside to play with Leo.&#8221; I reply<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; No! Not with that <em>mocoso<\/em>! Go to your room!&#8221; she yells. &#8220;Why mom?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because I said so&#8230;&#8221; was her reply.<\/p>\n<p>I look out the window &amp; see that that gray cloud had decided to linger a little longer. It starts raining and I guess I&#8217;m not going anywhere!<\/p>\n<p>I could see that, like that cloud, her mood has also turned gray. A sadness welts up in her eyes and a single tear rolls down her cheek. Immediately she wipes it off and turns so that I would not see it.<\/p>\n<p>My mother always has to be strong and never allows us to see her vulnerability. But today I did see it and I can understand her pain. She gave up a lot to come to the United States. She gave up her education; her career; her friends and family; her hopes; but most of all she gave up her future &amp; dreams so that we can have ours.<\/p>\n<p>Once in a while she allows herself to feel this. I don&#8217;t think its of remorse for giving up her past but out of shear loneliness. Having to bear the burden of bringing up five kids &#8211; practically alone &#8211; in a new world can be a daunting task.<\/p>\n<p>Carrying a heavy burden is daunting&#8230;<br \/>\nbut even worse having to do it without much support from dad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I was woken up by the sounds of a vacuum cleaner and loud music coming from the stereo. I throw the blanket over my head because I don&#8217;t feel like getting up. Looking out the window, I see a beautiful Sunday morning. The sky is bright and a beautiful shade of blue with &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/2008\/05\/spring-cleaning\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Spring Cleaning&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,29],"tags":[32,3,4],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-new-jersey","tag-family","tag-music","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}