Why We Should Have Company Every Week (then the house might get cleaned once in awhile)

I have definitely figured this out: it is necessary, if our house is ever to get cleaned, for us to have company once in awhile. Not just your average company, but people that have never seen your house. It's kind-of like when people meet you for the first time....from then on, that informs their impression of you. I have seen this first-hand many times. 

Recent example of clothing impressions (I'm chuckling just thinking about this):  I had been doing a good bit of painting and art-related work for a growing company. They had had me in numerous times for painting, consultations, and the like. Pretty much every time, I was in my paint-covered clothes with a bandanna on my neck and sweat running down.... there was an editor there that I wanted to talk to about my book, but every time I was there I was in said clothing and didn't manage to show up in any other garb. So even though I met him and said the proper niceties when he would walk down the hall, I never broached the subject of writing. Finally, a couple of weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet. I emailed him some questions and he recommended I come to their office and see him. I got up earlier than usual, dressed up, went to the shoe store and got some new black pumps, size 12W. We Slate girls have really good foundations, by the way. Try to tell somebody you're not big-boned when you wear that size shoe..... digressing, I'm really NOT big-boned. If you don't agree, that's because you've never seen my bones, haha. 

 Anyhow, the editor -- after walking in all glammed-up, we ended up having a nice, hour-long conversation. During this time, I alluded to the fact that I had done a good bit of work for them. I told him I had met him before as well, without actually telling him I was the "paint girl." He didn't remember ever meeting or seeing me before. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. So, you see, whether we like it or not, those impressions really do count. This guy didn't even recognize me when I was in two different contrasting outfits. I guess it was fortunate that he didn't remember me as the lowly servant girl? I have found that if I show up for a quote in my flowy-artist-girly clothes, people have no problem with me when I show up to work in my paint-splattered rags. They seem to have already type-cast me as the businesswoman artist. But if my first greeting is in my work clothes, I am looked at in a "lower" way. 

The unfortunate thing is that this is just the way we are....we can't help ourselves. We make impressions of people by their outside garb or our first contact with them. I have been guilty of judging people because my first impression of them indicates that they are cold or snobby. Later, as I get to know the true person and find out that they are wonderful and complex, I am shocked at my initial thoughts. You'd think I'd quit doing that. I'm trying. I DO hate snobbery, but I also hate my own tendency to judge. Cracked person! God have mercy on me!