I helped my cousin's fiancee move on Saturday. Shawn moved into their new home, and then Rachael will move in after the wedding in October, so we did a little moving of Rachael's major furniture items, as well.

If I had ever felt bad about my housekeeping skills, I no longer feel bad now. Shawn lived with three other guys in this beautiful house on Market Street. For those of you not familiar with Iowa City, that area of town is filled with historical houses with big front porches, hard wood floors, built-in shelves and cabinetry, georgeous woodwork, and just all the wonderful little touches that give a house character that you wouldn't ever see in a house built within the last 75 years. Such a beautiful house. It was everything I could ever wish for in a house, but since it was a rental, it was a little run-down, and since four guys lived there, it was covered in layers of dust.

Gross. How do people live like that? I don't think I stopped sneezing the entire time I was there. His electronics looked gray instead of black, there were dust bunnies in every corner, the carpets looked like they hadn't been vacuumed since they moved in, and there was a haze in the air from things being moved. How hard is it to run a Swiffer around the floor once every couple of months?

And Rachael. Rachael has two cats. I walked in there and about choked. I said, "Girl, it stinks in here." She told me the litter box needed changed, but it was so much more than that. She was used to it. There was a layer of cat hair on everthing. It smelled like the proverbial old lady's house, and I was just in the living room, not the TV room where the cats spend most of the time (and where the litter box was). When I got home, I kept smelling whiffs of cat shit, so I checked the bottoms of my shoes, thinking I had stepped in it. No, it was my t-shirt. And I spent a total of half an hour in that living room, and moved only wooden furniture. This is why I believe animals belong outside.

Shawn was moving a particularly hairy chair into the new house when one of her friends made the comment: "I think I could knit another cat from the amount of hair on that chair." He said, "Yeah, it's a good thing I love her." I said, "I love her, too, but not enough to live with those cats." "I heard that!" she called from inside the house.

I'm sure they'll be better housekeepers together than apart.