Sunday is the day I do my laundry and clean. I'm always trying to get rid of stuff. Truthfully? I have a housekeeper that comes once a month, and I tend not to make things too messy for her. But I do have clothes everywhere.
I think that as kids we all picture ourselves as the princess, the prince, and not really ever as the housekeeper or the comical alpaca or llama or what have you - the sidekick. But as an adult, I'm such a huge fan of people who are funny and people who are, in very brief moments, able to do something that you would never think is possible.
I think my grandmother Woodrell was most responsible for my becoming a writer. She wasn't quite literate, but was very proud that she attended school as far as the third grade. She worked as a maid, housekeeper and cook.
I grew up in Houston, and I remember we had separate drinking fountains, and black people sat in the balcony of the theater... We had an African-American housekeeper growing up who was really like my second mother. I thought it was silly - hatred just because of the color of somebody's skin.
There's nothing my housekeeper does that I can't do - and maybe better!
I leave a $100 bill and a note to the housekeeper at every hotel I've ever been in. It's important to write that they're recognized and appreciated.
God bless my mother - she's long gone now, but she'd work all day and go to school at night. She started out in life as a housekeeper at 15 years old, totally on her own, and she retired as a college professor. But there were some hard times. It's not easy for a woman who's only trying to do the best for her kid but who could never be home.
Kindness is the No. 1 quality I look for in a man. You can see in how he treats anyone - from a CEO to a housekeeper - and it's a reflection of how nice a guy is. Funniness and confidence come after that... When a guy approaches me, it's fantastic if he can make me laugh.
Remember 'The Brady Bunch' TV show? That 1970s family had a full-time live-in housekeeper called Alice. Mrs. Brady worked at the PTA and did community work. She didn't clean her own house. That was middle class. Now you have to be very rich to employ a housekeeper. Everything it meant to be middle class has changed dramatically.
I was just at home walking around at home, and I started feel, well, just funny. You know how you can feel funny? I had a strange pain in my chest. So my housekeeper took me to the hospital, when they hooked me up and did all these tests turned out I had a big heart attack.
