I was totally the best Nanny ever

The summer of 2002 I had a strange job offer. My high school (and still current) friend Jenn called and asked me if I would be interested in being a nanny with her.

We didn't head to New York or Boston to nanny. We were nannies on a ranch in Colorado. The owners of the ranch were planning to come out for about 6 weeks during the summer (spread out in a few different trips) and they wanted nannies for their three children.

Oh, and also, we did the cleaning of the house.

So technically we were maids/nannies. But, we got to be together 24 hours a day, so it seemed like a great plan. We also got paid $120 a day which at the time, for me, was FANTASTIC money.

We arrived at the ranch a week before the family, so we could unpack/wash everything that the designer had shipped out. We are talking an entire kitchen, bedding and linens for four bedrooms and four bathrooms, and decorations for various common rooms. We had mysterious diagrams from the designer, but I really have no idea if we put things where they were supposed to go.

That part was actually fun. It was easy to pretend that it was my house instead of belonging to the rich family from Connecticut.

Cleaning up after strangers is significantly different than cleaning your own house. That realization came upon me very quickly. My own laundry? Not a problem. The laundry of a family of five other people? Problem. My own bathroom? No sweat. Other people's bathrooms? Yuck.

But the thing I hated most of all was sweeping. The entire house was hardwood floors and that equaled a heck of a lot of sweeping. Soon, Jenn and I had a deal. She would sweep and I would mop. She would pick the hair and gunk that attached itself to the bottom of the broom off and I killed all of the bugs.

We were the perfect team.

I guess we were pretty good nannies too. Our main assignment was to get the kids to specified activities at the correct time. Tennis with the tennis pro, riding with the horse pro, fishing with the fly-fishing guy, ropes course with the ropes course pro and hanging out Native American style with the Native American they hired to set up tee pees on the ranch (No, I am not kidding--he was also in Dances with Wolves). In between, we helped the personal chef, did the before mentioned cleaning and rode 4-wheelers with the kids.

At night we went to our "house" which was the main house on an adjoining ranch that was purchased by the same family. It was also furnished by the designer.

Looking back on this experience leaves me a little in awe. Did I really do that?

What surreal experiences have you had in your life?